A girl
by Regsd
Summary: One night Kaiba gets a call from his security guard; there is someone in one of his warehouses. He decides to deal with the problem himself, but when he arrives, he is met by a terrifying sight - a girl getting beaten up by a man. Seto K. X OC
1. Chapter 1 The rescue

**Well this is my first story in here and I hope you'll like it.**

**But first I'd like to thank BlackRose87 - without her kind messages and encouragement this story would never have been begun (or a least not for a very long time).**

**The Rescue**

It was in the middle of the night and most of the city was sleeping. Except, it seemed, for one person who tossed and turned in his bed unable to even close his eyes.

This person was Seto Kaiba, the head of Kaiba Corp, he lay frustrated in his bed, annoyed that he wasn't able to just close his eyes, fall asleep and wake up to another day's work.

Finally, he decided to get up and use his time for something a little more productive so he kicked his blanket off, got up and got dressed. He groaned when he saw that it only was 3 o'clock in the morning.

He walked mechanically along the dark corridor, his feet remembering this walk automatically because he often couldn't sleep and just as often he got up and began the day's work.

At about 4.30 he got a call from the security guard who was monitoring his warehouses. He didn't answer the phone right away – it must be something important or else his guard wouldn't dare to call his terrifying boss, especially not in the morning (or as it really was in the middle of the night). At last he answered the phone: "Kaiba, what seems to be so urgent that you call in the middle of the night?" He knew it wasn't fair since he was up, but the lack of sleep made him irritable. "Well sir, there seems to be someone in warehouse 5. What do you want me to do?" Kaiba could hear that the guard was nervous and pretty insecure of what he should do. "Well that is what happens if you hire dumbass gorillas who can't count to 10" Kaiba thought by himself. He thought about his options for at few seconds, he actually really wanted to go out for a bit and what was better than chasing some punk away from HIS property? "I'll take care of it" he told the guard and then hang up, but not before he heard the guard's relieved sigh. "_well_" Kaiba thought while walking to his car "_just go back to your whisky and comfy chair, 'cause this is your last night at KC_". He made a mental note to write a dismissal note later that day, got into his car and drove into the night.

**At the same time in warehouse 5**

Another flash of pain woke her from her half unconscious state. "Don't you dare escape by passing out like that bitch! You need to start talking right know!" she opened her eyes only to realize that the left was to swollen to open. She turned away from the rough, harsh voice of her assailant. She had only caught a small glimpse of him when he had knocked her out but it was enough to see that he was big, very big with biceps as big as her waist. She didn't know what time it was or how long this man had been beating her, all she knew was that when she woke up she was chained with iron cuffs to some water pipes in a large dark building.

She could feel that she was drifting into blissful unconsciousness, she almost felt like smiling until a fist rammed into her stomach with tremendous force. "_L__ucky I haven't eaten anything for quite a while_" she thought "_otherwise I would have thrown it all up on his shoes_" and she didn't dare thinking what he would have done then.

"What do you think you are doing here?!" a voice cut through the air. "_I'm saved_" she thought just before she passed out.

Kaiba had just parked his car and turned off the engine when he heard something that sounded like a fight from warehouse 5, he had checked his laptop before entering and discovered that this warehouse merely contained old, outdated machines.

But he hadn't anticipated the sight that met him when he got inside.

The first thing he saw was a big brute with blood on his fist, covering something with his enormous body, but then he stepped one step backward and Kaiba saw something that even made him, the cold, unshakeable, merciless leader of Kaiba Corp, loose composure, though only for a moment.

What he saw behind this giant was a small figure, maybe a third the size of the brute, chained to a water pipe. It was a girl. She looked terrible, her knees was a bloody mess, her clothes torn, there was dripping blood from her face onto the cold concrete floor and some of her fingers on her left hand pointed in the wrong direction. Kaiba couldn't see her face; her head was hanging lifeless on her shoulders, covered with chocolate brown hair.

"What do you think you are doing here?!" Kaiba's angry voice echoed through the warehouse. He was angry, really angry! This man dared to enter his property and beat up some girl? This he could absolutely not accept. The man turned around with a grunt and showed a slight resemblance with a gorilla (don't know why everybody has to be gorillas).

The brute at first looked utterly surprised to see another person in the warehouse, but when the first shock had settled he cried out loud at launched himself at Kaiba, who gracefully stepped aside. This resulted in the brute hammering into the steel wall. The big man got up shaking his head like a dog and pulled out a big shinny knife.

Kaiba remained calm; he knew his own speed and strength and just stood watching the brute with his arrogant smirk. This was too much for the brute to handle and he threw himself at Kaiba with enormous force. Again Kaiba stepped aside at the knife hammered into a barrel labelled "gasoline". Quickly the gas ran out of the barrel forming a big puddle under the brute. He didn't notice.

Kaiba decided that it was time to stop playing with this man and in three long paces he reached the man, kicked him in the head in one long fluid motion. The man remained were he landed while the gas slowly got sucked into his clothes and started to evaporate, filling the air with gas steam.

Kaiba walked swiftly over to the beat up girl, grabbing a crowbar on the way. He started to hit the water pipe until it broke and caught the girl before she hit the ground. He slowly laid her down on the floor to look at the damages. She looked a little younger than him, about 18. The features of her face were almost unrecognizable under all the blood and the swollen eye. Kaiba realized that she had also broken her nose.

He sat starring at her until the smell of the gas in the air reached him; he lifted the girl up in his arms heading for the door. When he was halfway through the door, he heard a noise; the brute had gotten to his knees and had reached for a gun in his jacket. Kaiba stopped dead as the man fired, but fortunately he was as bad aiming as he was stupid. The spark from the gun lit the gas in the air and a massive inferno spread in the warehouse in a matter of seconds; the man didn't even manage to scream before he was consumed by the fire.

Kaiba jumped away from the opening and barely got out the range of the fire. He turned around and carried the girl to his car, flying through the night in his black streamlined car.

**Well, this was the first chapter:) please review, if you like, I'd be glad to hear comment, ideas and criticism. Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2 Dr Jones

**Well, this is the second chapter:) hope you like it:)**

**Dr. Jones**

When she woke up, all her muscles tightened preparing her body for another blow... which never came. She didn't move or even opened her eyes; she just remained still wondering what was going on. She realized she wasn't in the dark building anymore, because now she was lying on some soft surface. Was it leather? But where was she then? She tried paying attention to her surroundings, but she only succeeded in realizing she was in a car. A warm car. For some reason she felt save. Why, she didn't know, she tried to recall what had happened and suddenly she remembered the voice!

Never before had she heard such a beautiful, scary, calm, cold voice, like a diamond cutting through the air. She heard the engine growling when the driver ordered it to stop and then a quiet cursing reach her ears – it belonged to the same who had rescued her! Or at least that was what she hoped. Right now she didn't care if her driver was some homicidal lunatic, she felt save and warm. She gave a whimpering sound and then fell asleep again, dreaming of the mysterious owner of the voice.

Kaiba cursed as the traffic light changed to red and he had to stop. _What is the point of owning a big expensive car if you have to stop by every god damn traffic light_ he thought by himself. Then he heard a sound from the backseat and remembered what he had to do.

He looked at his watch; almost 5 o'clock in the morning. He didn't liked waking his brother up this early in the morning, but today it was necessary. He hit the speed dial and waited.

"Seto??" a sleepy voice asked. "Mokuba, I need you to call Dr. Jones and get him to come over at once, say that it's urgent".

"Is there something wrong?" suddenly Mokuba wide awake, his voice filled with worry. "No, nothing's wrong. Just call the doctor. Tell him to bring first-aid kit" Kaiba said, "make sure to do it as discreet as possible".

Mokuba sounded confused: "I will... but why?".

"I'll explain when I get home... Sorry I woke you up" Kaiba hanged up. He glanced at the girl _"well, I'm glad I didn't let that dumb-ass idiot handle this. Could have gotten messy"_ he thought and speeded the car up.

Mokuba looked confused at the phone in his hand. Why did he want Dr. Jones? "_He only uses him, when he has had accidents with some of his new invention and he doesn't want to go to a hospital, fearing someone would learn something about his projects_." Mokuba thought; "_He even hates like the guy!" _

More confused than ever Mokuba got up and called Dr. Jones.

Kaiba drove into the garage and stopped the car. He leaned back in the car seat and closed his eyes. He needed to think this through; it had been the right choice to bring in Dr. Jones, who at least was known for his discretion. Even though Kaiba didn't like the guy, he knew he could trust him to keep his mouth shut!

He heard movement from the behind him and turned. It was only the girl shifting position. He let out a sigh and got out off the car. "_This day just keep getting more and more irritating."_

Mokuba was shocked when he realised what his brother was carrying – it was a person! When they got closer he saw the blood. He could feel his blood freeze in his veins. _"What has happened?!" _this question repeated itself over and over again until his brother's voice broke the silence.

"Mokuba, I need you to get the room in the farthest end of the west wing ready!"

Mokuba slowly nodded, then turned and started running up the stairs, heading for the west wing. _"Why?" _he wondered _"why the west wing? The only thing there is Seto's work rooms. No one ever comes there except the occasional maid, who keeps the rooms clean."_

He reached the room, inhaling and exhaling heavy to catch his breath again. This was too early for this kind of running.

He looked around and saw that this was one of the many bedrooms in the mansion. He turned the light on and then went to see if the light and water in the belonging bathroom worked... It did. He returned to the room and removed the beddings, and then he sat down and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

Kaiba walked in and carefully placed the unconscious girl (Mokuba now saw) on the bed.

"When does Dr. Jones arrive?"

"In about..." Mokuba checked his watch "... 15 minutes."

None of the brothers said anything for a while until Mokuba broke the silence: "Brother, will you please tell me what happened."

Kaiba looked and him for a moment and then told Mokuba the whole story about the incompetent security guard (who still would get a dismissal note later), the big man and the fire.

Mokuba couldn't believe his own ears! This was terrible! "But why didn't you just drive her to the nearest hospital or call for an ambulance?"

"Because" Kaiba said, rubbing his temple. The need for sleep started to kick in. "Because, firstly I want to know what the hell this man was doing on my property. Secondly this man is now dead and even though I doubt many will miss him, the consequences of bringing her" he nodded towards the girl "to a hospital will mean a lot of questions and maybe even police interrogations. Thirdly I want to know why one little girl could cause so many troubles."

Mokuba saw the sense in this. That's why he needed Dr. Jones and that's why the girl had to be in one of the least trafficked rooms. Suddenly someone knocked on the door. It was Dr. Jones (speaking of the devil).

Dr. Jones was one of those people you look at for a moment and then you forget how he looks. He was an ordinary man, no, not even an ordinary man – he was transparent.

Kaiba got up and walked past him, followed by Mokuba. "You know what to do" he said as they went through the door.

Outside in the corridor Kaiba leaned against the wall. "_Why couldn't that damn girl have been in someone else's warehouse instead of mine!?" _He cursed by himself "_and why should it be so damn hard to fall asleep!"_

15 minutes passed by and Kaiba started to feel impatient and even more annoyed than he had been the whole morning (night). He looked at his watch it was 6 o'clock. He closed his eyes and thought of his options concerning the girl. He couldn't kick her out before she was fully recovered; if she needed some help in that condition it was sure to raise a lot of questions and the last thing he needed know was nosy cops and the even more nosy journalists. "_Well, that leaves only one option left, she has to stay until she is recovered."_ Before he could reflect on all the annoyances this girl would cause, Dr. Jones stepped out.

"She is badly injured. A broken nose, three broken fingers on her left hand, four broken ribs; three in the right side and one in the left, her right wrist is sprained. She has massive bruises everywhere, though it's worst on her back and shoulders. The grazes on her knees isn't as bad as they look. Besides all that she is dehydrated and starved. Luckily none of her internal organs was damaged even though it seems like she has taken quite a few blows to it. I have treated all the injuries and given her a heavy shot of morphine. As for my payment..."

"It's already on your bank account" Kaiba interrupted.

"Thank you Sir. I will have to attend her in a few days. Good day."

And with these words Dr. Jones left.

**Thanks for reading:) Hope you'll review**


	3. Chapter 3 Interrogations and Lies

**Ta ta ta taaaa! Third Chapter is here! **

**From reading other stories I found out that I miss some kinda disclaimer. So here we go:**

**I don't own Yu-gi-oh.... ehh or anything that has with Yu-gi-oh to do... hmm I guess that's that??**

**By the way; Thanks to all of you who have reviewed! c",)**

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**Interrogation and Lies**

Kaiba and Mokuba entered the room again. The girl was still unconscious or was it the morphine? She was covered in bandaged and a tube ran from her arm to a plastic bag containing whatever she needed to get hydrated again.

When they got closer Mokuba got a proper look at her for the first time. She had long dark chocolate brown hair with big, soft curls in some places and straight, smooth locks in other.

He focussed on her face, which was... A mess, there where no other words for how her face looked. The left side was swollen and was starting to turn into a dark purple colour, her nose had been bleeding (but it was at least straight thanks to Dr. Jones' treatment) and her lower lip was split. Mokuba found himself wondering what colour her eyes were.

"I need to go to work." His brother's word snapped him out of his consideration whether her eyes were brown or green. He looked at his brother and nodded. "I'll let you know when she wakes up". Kaiba nodded once and headed for the door. Before he closed the door he turned towards Mokuba. "Don't get too attached" and with these words he closed the door and was gone.

For a while Mokuba just sat beside the bed, wondering. "_Something is missing... But what?" _he thought when it suddenly hit him: "_Her eyes! Even though they are closed and one is swollen, they totally miss the swelling you get when you cry... Did she go through all this without crying?!"_ He starred at her for moment, then he let out a sigh; "I think you're a tough girl" he said to the unconscious patient in front of him. He let out another sigh and got up.

He walked to the bathroom and found a towel. He let the water run until it got warm and then soaked the towel. He returned to the girl and started cleaning her face, washing all the blood away. Then he carefully continued with her hands and elbows. When most of the blood was gone he covered her with a blanket, went back to his chair and waited.

And hour went by... 2 hours... 3 hours... He was about to fall asleep, when he saw her eyelids flutter and then her eyes opened (or at least the right eye did) and Mokuba saw that he had been wrong, guessing her eyes were either green or brown – they were blue! Not the same kind of light blue like him and his brother, but a dark blue which looked like two deep pools of water. They were beautiful!

These eyes now moved rapidly around the room and then locked themselves in Mokuba's.

She was confused! Where was she? Who was that boy? The questions swirled in her head. She began to panic, cold sweat starting to run down her back. Then suddenly the boy put his hand on her arm and she felt a sudden wave of calmness washing over her. "_This boy won't do me any harm... He's just a boy for heaven's sake! Get your grip together girl!"_

Mokuba sat still during the girl's shifting stages of feelings, but when she looked like she was about to panic he softly put a hand on his arm and it seemed like she calmed down.

She opened her mouth to speak, but not even a sound came out. She tried again, this time a choked whisper escaped her lips.

Mokuba guessed what she wanted to say: "You're safe... You're at our house".

She tried to speak again, this time she succeeded in produce an audible whisper "what happened?"

"My brother saved you" and then he told her the rest of the story. "By the way, my name is Mokuba Kaiba and my brother is Seto Kaiba, he..." his voice trailed off when he saw a mixture of chock and fear in her face, but it was over too fast for him even to be sure of what he saw.

"_Seto Kaiba!? Seto Kaiba saved me? Of all the people Set... No, I WAS saved that is all that should matter."_ She saw in Mokuba's face that her feelings must have betrayed her. She tried to find the feelings she felt towards the man that saved her and then she remembered the voice that saved her. She tried thinking of the voice – trying to FEEL it inside her and slowly; she grew calm. She placed a hand upon Mokuba's, who hadn't removed his from her arm. "Thank you" she said, with all the gratefulness she could find in her heart.

Mokuba just smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"Nicole Whitmore, but please call me Nikki."

Kaiba sat at his desk in his office, talking in phone with some big time boss in an American game-company, when his phone showed another incoming call. He checked the number – it was his brother. He remembered the girl, an object which he successfully had repressed for the last few hours. He ended his conversation with the American and answered his brother.

"Hi Seto, she has awakened!" Mokuba said with much enthusiasm. Kaiba looked at his watch. "I'll be back in an hour" he said and then he hung up.

Mokuba heard the car driving up driveway. He jumped to his feet, "My brother is home! I'll be right back" and with these words he ran out of the room slamming the door behind him.

Nikki smiled by herself; he was a cute kid... "_I wonder if the others are okay... I guess they are alright... It was only m – stop right there! This is not the time or place to be thinking about that!"_ She kicked herself mentally, which just made her head starting to hurt again. The morphine was wearing off.

She was struggling to get into a more comfortable sitting position when the door opened and there; right before her stood the man who must have been her saviour. She flinched – he looked angry.

Kaiba closed the door behind him and slowly walked towards the now awaken girl. He took the chair which only moments before had been occupied by his brother. He noticed that even though the girl tried to hide it, she looked scared – traces of fear showing in her dark blue eyes.

Nikki begged for the ground to swallow her. Anything to avoid the piercing stare of his ice cold blue eyes.

"You need to give me some answer and don't you dare lie to me" his voice cut through her like a knife. Somehow scaring and soothing her at the same time.

"What is your name?" he asked, leaning back in the chair one leg across the other.

Nikki stared at her hands, unable to look him in the eyes: "N-N-N-Nicole W-Whitmore" she stuttered. _Lie._

"How old are you?"

"18" she answered feeling her body crumbling beneath his intense gaze. _Lie._

"And know to a more important question: Who was that man and why did he beat you up in my warehouse?"

Kaiba waited. It didn't seem like the girl's brain had taken any damaged from the whole affair – at least she knew her name and age. He was beginning to doubt that the girl would answer him, but just as he opened his mouth to repeat the question the girl spoke.

"I-I-I think he was hired by my stepfather."

"Why would you stepfather hire someone to beat you up?" Kaiba asked in disbelief.

"M-m-my stepfather likes to beat me a-a-around, when he is drunk... and he is always drunk" she said "that's why I ran away the moment I turned 18."

"That still doesn't answer my other questions: Why was he beating you up and why did it happen in my warehouse?"

She started to shake slightly, but then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and continued her story.

"My mum is dead and she was rich... All her money went straight to my stepfather, therefore he never was short of money and I guess that was how he could afford hiring that... that MAN!" The last word she almost spitted out. "I don't know why he hired him; I guess he wanted to punish me..." She looked up into his eyes and for a moment everything went still... Both of them were holding their breath... and then the moment was gone – just as quickly as it had appeared, like it had never happened.

"Why it was in your warehouse I don't know..." she looked down on her bandaged hand and kept silent. Nikki felt slightly sick "_Why do I have to lie to him?" _She knew the answer to that question "_But... I really wish I didn't have to..."_

Kaiba's mind drifted "_Well, her story sounds plausible. It will be hard to confirm the story without hiring some kind of professional investigator and I really don't wanna waste time or money for those kinda things.. and the whole warehouse-thing just seemed like an coincidence." _

He looked at the girl; she was fumbling with the bandages on her hand. Kaiba let out a sigh. This was just too annoying!

"Okay. Listen carefully 'cause I hate repeating myself. The man who beat you up is dead. The warehouse burst into flames. The police are unlikely to find anything left of him, so unless you start mouthing up, the whole episode will be filed as a mere case of vandalism. You will stay here until you're fully recovered; Dr. Jones will determine how long that will be. And..." He stared directly into the girl's eyes, which had been directed at him ever since he started talking and continued: "...And if you so much as think of opening that sweet little mouth of yours and tell something different you will rue the day you were born. Do you understand?"

An ice cold smirk spread across his face as he watched his words sink in and he knew that she had understood. The girl's eyes widened (or at least one did) and she nodded slowly... only to flinch as her head started to hurt again.

"I'll send some food for you" he said as he got up and walked towards the door. As his hand touched the handle he heard a small voice behind him. He looked back as the girl repeated her words: "Thank you..." and then he left, somehow a little distressed.

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**I've decided to finish this story no matter how many reviews I get... This doesn't mean that I don't want any though :3**

**As a pre-thanks for all the many reviews I'll get, you'll get a funny (meaningless) name-fact about Nikki Whitmore:**

**I actually has a computergame called Nikki ( It's not a very good one, but hey!) and that's how she got her first name! (Lack of imagination XD)**

**Her last name is from the cartoon movie called Atlantis - The lost empire... Preston Whitmore is the one paying for the whole thing XD**


	4. Chapter 4 A Nuisance

**Here goes the fourth chapter :3 it's a bit longer and (I think) also a little more boring, but you just have to cope XD**

**Anyway, I have a question: Is this disclaimer thingy really neccesary? I doubt someone in here actually owns a manga so... whatever I don't own anything (not even a computer; this is all written by hand and the clock says 3 am)**

**And again: Thanks to all of you who have reviewed! **

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**A Nuisance?**

She woke up with a start, covered in sweat with one hand covering her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. "_It was just a nightmare"_ she thought over and over again to calm herself down. Nikki closed her eye and sank deeper into her pillow trying to breathe slowly.

Suddenly she heard someone knocking on the door; she started to shiver until she heard a familiar voice. "Nikki, it's me can I come in?" she felt a wave of calmness wash over her and answered.

A smiling Mokuba entered the room. He frowned when he saw the sweat on her face and her bewildered expression. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Nikki gave him a dazzling smile "Just a nightmare... nothing more."

Mokuba relaxed; "_I guess it's only natural considering what she have been through and from what Seto told me her life hasn't been easy.."_

"What time is it?" she asked a little disorientated, she didn't know how long she'd slept.

"It's about 12 o'clock, you've slept through the rest of yesterday and the night" Mokuba answered. Nikki nodded and then kept silent.

"How are you feeling?" he asked to keep break the akward silence between them.

"I'm alright I guess... my head doesn't hurt that much any longer nor does my fingers, but the rest of my body, well..." She shrugged and then winced, which Mokuba guessed was a good indication of what condition her body was in. She looked at him hesitantly; "Do you mind if I take a bath?" she asked hopefully.

Mokuba smiled at her, "of course not! There should be towel and soap in the bathroom and..." he paused and looked at her clothes, they were blood smeared and torn "I'll see if I can get you some clothes, though you might have to borrow some of Seto's old".

"Thank you" she said smiling, though a little more strained this time.

Nikki tried to get up and she succeeded, very slowly. Mokuba could see that she was fighting the pain, and that she was doing her best not to let it show. _"Well, maybe it's better if I leave her alone now... Seto doesn't want me to see when he is in pain either..." _Mokuba thought before he said: "I'll find some clothes to you" and ran to the door.

Nikki looked after him, halfway out off the bed. _"He really is a cute kid"_ She thought for not the first time, _"well girl, you are going to get from __this__ bed to __that __bathroom... and that's before it gets dark."_ She let out a sigh and got to work.

After 15 minutes or so she finally got to the bathroom... only to begin the painful progress of undressing. But it was all worth it once she got under the warm water. "_How long as it been since I last got a proper bath" _She wondered, too long was the only answer to that question.

For a long time she stood under the shower, not thinking of anything other than the hot water caressing her sore body.

Eventually she got out I looked in the mirror to view the damages... She looked terrible; her body was a cascade of colours – red, blue, purple even a little green could be spotted!

Nikki cursed at herself she'd forgotten the bandages on her hand and her lower chest. "How could I miss them?!" she asked herself aloud. She did her best to dry the soaked material and had almost succeeded when someone knocked on the door. She wrapped the tower around her sore body and opened the door, just to find a rather shocked Mokuba outside the door. "_Well, guess he never saw a blue/purple/green girl before" _she thought by herself, giving him the chance to get over her unusual colour.

"I got you some clothes" he finally said "it's a little big, but I also brought you one of my belts so you should be able to manage... and some food" He added as he heard Nikki's stomach growl. He grinned at her and handed over the stack he held in his arms. Nikki thanked him, closed the door and took a closer look at her new "wardrobe".

It consisted of a pair of worn out leather pants with a hole on the left knee and a tight black sweater.

She shrugged (only to wince again) and started to dress. Mokuba had chosen well, the pants needed the belt and were rather long, but they were comfortable and the sweater was warm and fitted her well, though a little tight around her chest. "_Ah well, at least I look decent"_ she let out at little laugh at that thought, these clothes, in this state, were probably more expensive and from a far higher quality than hers were when they were new.

She went into the bedroom again and found Mokuba on her bed with a worried look in his eyes. "Is something wrong?"

Mokuba flinched and looked up, "No... it's nothing really... " Nikki walked to the bed and sat down next to him. He looked at her and continued "The doctor who ehh fixed you is going abroad and therefore he has to attend you again this afternoon."

He looked down on his hands. "It's just that neither me nor Seto like the guy..."

Nikki was about to ask why, but Mokuba interrupted her, "Let's just say it's complicated." Nikki nodded, she accepted the answer and left the subject. Instead she put her hand on his and gave it a squeeze. Mokuba let out a sigh and put his head on her shoulder... which he shouldn't have done, because (as we discovered before) Nikki's body was one big bruise. Mokuba nearly got a heart attack when Nikki screamed and flew down to the floor only to scream again because of some new pain somewhere else.

The whole "episode" took about 10 seconds, but Nikki had to use 15 minutes to calm an almost shaking Mokuba on the verge of tears.

When Mokuba had calmed down he offered Nikki a tour around the mansion after she'd eaten the food he'd brought her, which Nikki accepted with pleasure – lying in bed all day was too frustrated even though she hoped she could avoid a certain someone…

"_Wauw! This is just amazing! I've never seen anything like this… How can only two people live here"_ Nikki thought after have been shown the ground floor, "_It's just so different from… home?"_ She stopped thinking and she almost felt the little joy she'd experienced together with Mokuba being sucked out of her.

All this Mokuba saw… and he discovered that he really hated seeing Nikki like that. "_If only there was a way to cheer her up…" _

"Do you wanna see the garden?" he asked, trying to put as much happiness in his voice that he could manage. He was rewarded with a soft smile on Nikki's face.

Nikki thought about it for a moment; her body ached and she felt terribly weak, but the thought of being bound to a bed was not very pleasant, "I'd love to" she finally answered.

"_Besides" _she thought bitterly "_I'm used to pain… I can endure…"_

So they went out into the garden. Nikki stopped dead in her track and just stared – this was the biggest garden she had ever seen, she couldn't even see how big it was.

They walked a short round in the garden – it was late fall and starting to get cold. When they approach the door to the house Nikki felt her heart drop – cause there, in the door stood none other than the owner of this castle… and, Nikki got suddenly extremely aware of the fact, the owner of the clothes she was just wearing. She felt the blood running to her cheeks. "_Hopefully the bruise will cover this"_ she thought with increasing embarrassment.

"_Half beaten to death and she walks around like nothing happened after 24 hours?!" _was the first thought that ran through Kaiba's head when he saw Mokuba and the girl in the garden. "_Wonder if she's always been this retarded or if her head did get damaged after all?" _He thought even though he had to admit that she looked better; she'd obviously showered, the swelling in her face was getting better and her dark blue eyes had regained some life.

"Dr. Jones just called… He'll be here in 15 minutes" Kaiba said.

Nikki expected him to turn around and leave them, but instead he waited and followed them back to her room.

"How are you feeling" he asked out of a sudden when they reached the room. Nikki got so startled by his voice that she almost jumped, which caused her to wince yet again.

"I get the picture" Kaiba said seeing the pained expression on her face. On a sudden impulse he lifted her chin and softly said: "You should take better care of yourself." Nikki froze. This was too much! His voice sent shivers down her spine causing her almost to shake and then he just let go – leaving her more confused than ever.

He let go of her chin just as Mokuba turned around to look at them (he'd been walking in front). "I'll go down and wait for Dr. Jones" Mokuba said and left; leaving Kaiba alone with the girl. Kaiba let out a sigh and turned to the window. If just this idiotic doctor would hurry so he could get him out of his sight again AND find out how long he had to put up with this… problem.

Suddenly he felt two arms around his waist and a head against his back; he stiffened and then relaxed.

"I just want to thank you… again" a soft murmur said behind him, "without you I'd probably be…" her voice trailed off, but Kaiba guessed what she'd wanted to say. She'd be dead.

"Please let go" he said quietly and gently freed himself from her embrace. He kept staring out the window as Nikki let go off him and returned to the bed.

Kaiba wouldn't turn and look at her. He tried to ignore this strange warmth spreading inside his stomach…

Finally Mokuba entered with Dr. Jones and Kaiba turned around having regained his old smirk. This feeling he could handle.

Nikki looked curious at Dr. Jones, whom she'd never seen before - due to her being unconscious under their last meeting – but she soon discovered that this man didn't seem to hold anything interesting and she let it go.

She did everything Dr. Jones told her to; trying to lift her arms, bend her fingers and so on. Nevertheless she hesitated when he asked her to remove the sweater, but with a side-glance towards Kaiba she slowly began the painful process of removing the shirt.

Mokuba decided to give her some privacy and left the room, but Kaiba remained.

At first Nikki got almost angry at him for looking at her, but then she remembered who was paying for the whole thing… she sighed when she finally dropped the sweater on her bed.

Dr. Jones' fingers quickly swept across her chest giving her goose bumps all over, but he didn't take long. Then he changed the bandage around her chest and fingers (which still was a little wet) and started to pack his things.

Nikki jumped when he suddenly talked to her: "Are you aware that you back is full of scares and that one of your ribs is crooked because it didn't heal right?"

"_Damn… this doctor is good" _Nikki thought, "I didn't know about the scars nor did I know that my rib had been broken." This was true, she knew that she had taken quite some beaten on her back (and her body in general) and that she once had had a severe pain in her chest, but she'd rarely looked herself in the mirror (especially not her back) and she never had a doctor attend any of her injuries before.

Nikki thought Dr. Jones would want to hear more about this, but he surprised her by turning his attention on Kaiba: "Everything is looking fine, but she'll need rest for the next 1½ - 2 month." Kaiba frowned. "Furthermore I will not be able to attend her further due to some business issues, therefore you will have to change the bandages every second day the next 2 weeks and then they can be removed completely. I will leave you the necessary amount."

Kaiba was furious: "I pay you a fortune and then you can't even attend the patient?!"

"As I explained before: business matters. Good bye." And with these words Dr. Jones left, leaving both Nikki and Kaiba flabbergasted. (Sorry, had to use that word – it's just so funny :3)

Kaiba gave the door one more angry glare and then walked out leaving Nikki alone.

She lay down in her bed and closed her eyes: "_am I really such a nuisance_?"

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**Well, hope you like it! And please review :3 I'll try to update has soon as possible...**


	5. Chapter 5 Frustration

**Wau! It's amazing... after little over two weeks I've already managed to write 5 chapters!! hehe XD**

**Well, this chapter and chapter 6 should originally have been only one chapter, but when I started writing it just got longer and longer and I decided to split it in two :3 so here you go! Enjoy!!!**

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**Frustration**

The next day went on pretty uneventful. Nikki woke up around 11 o'clock just to discover that she was alone. Beside her bed there was a tray filled with different kinds of breakfasts and a little note. She read the note:

_Morning! I won't be home until 3 o'clock because of school. Hope you like your breakfast! Seeya later Mokuba_

The note left Nikki confused for a moment, until she realized that it must be Monday. _"well, that means I got beaten up Saturday…" _The mere thought of the episode send shivers down her spine.

Nikki ate her breakfast and then got out of bed. _"What am I supposed to do??" _she thought a little uneasy. The thought of lying in bed all day seemed very unappealing. She rose entirely from the bed and winced, "_Damn! I'm sore…. Feels like I've been run over by a herd of elephants… well there is nothing like a warm bath to ease that kind of pain"_ and while keeping that in mind she staggered towards the bathroom.

After the shower she dressed in the same clothes as the day before in which she felt strangely comfortable comparing to the day before. And then she went exploring!

Although Mokuba had shown her the mansion the day before Nikki enjoyed being able to discover the place for herself. When she reached the door to the garden she decided to get some fresh air. Only to realize the door was locked and that it was impossible to unlock it without the key… She limped down the stairs towards the front door, which also was locked. "_It seems like the almighty Kaiba wants me to stay put or maybe he's just afraid I'll steal some big fancy TV and carry it away on my back …" _that thought reminded her of what she could expect of the following day; "_is he really going to change the bandage himself??" _the thought was highly unsettling "_No… that's impossible… Surely he has some maid to do the job"_ for some reason she found that very unlikely. Firstly she'd now been wandering around the house for almost an hour without seeing a single servant of any kind. Secondly he did make it quite clear that he didn't like anyone knowing she was here. _"argh!! Why me??"_ she suddenly felt the urge to run around screaming, but she controlled herself, remembering her injuries.

Time passed by slowly but finally it was 3 o'clock and Mokuba got home. Words couldn't describe the relieve Nikki felt, she was about to start running in circles from pure frustration when she heard the door being opened.

Mokuba walked swiftly towards the front door. He'd had a hard time concentrating in school today because he worried about Nikki. He felt kinda bad about just leaving her with just a note, but he knew that she needed the rest.

Nikki sat on the stairs waiting for him to get his coat and shoes off. "_She looks so weak and thin sitting like that…" _He thought feeling a wave of sadness washing over him "_but then again, big unfittingly clothes probably doesn't help"_ He added a bit sarcastically. He shook his head as if to get rid of all the negative feelings and put on a big smile, which was rewarded by a dazzling smile from the young woman sitting on the stairs.

The next few hours they spend playing video games in Mokuba's room and chatting. They talked about casual things, but carefully avoided more personal things, especially about Nikki's past, though she did seem quite surprised when he shortly mentioned that he and Seto grew up in an orphanage, even though she didn't ask any questions. This Mokuba found quite strange, normally when people learned about that, they started to ask all sorts of questions, but Nikki didn't. He also had a strange feeling that she was hiding something. Could there be something worse than an abusive stepfather??

There were also times, where a shadow fell over her face and she seemed to remember something terrible, but she always hid it as soon as it appeared and therefore Mokuba didn't have the chance to "investigate" further… but he did begin to study her more closely…

Nikki enjoyed the afternoon with Mokuba, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so relaxed and calm, but she certainly didn't want it to end and she felt almost sad, when a servant came and announced that their dinner was ready.

They made their way to the kitchen and started to eat. It was the first time in Nikki's stay, that she ate her meal in the kitchen rather than in her room. It suddenly hit her that a member of the Kaiba family was missing; she asked Mokuba about this.

"He is working" he just said "he usually doesn't come home until about 8"

Nikki just nodded and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.

After that Nikki again wandered around the mansion. She was alone – Mokuba had homework to do and she felt unusually restless. She couldn't help this unnerving feeling that hung over her head like a dark cloud, but she couldn't help it, she knew that she was in quite a dilemma and she just couldn't see her way out of it.

In the end Nikki went back to her room and lay down on the bed. There she remained until she heard the front door open and close. She closed her eyes and tried to look like she was asleep, just in case…

Kaiba strode up the stairs, stopped by his brother's room and then continued to his home office. He didn't give the girl much thought…

Nikki's pretended sleep soon turned into actual sleep and she didn't notice that her door slowly opened creating a slim line of light on her unsettled face, she gave a small whimper and tossed her head around, and the door closed.

The next day passed as the previous one; Mokuba being in school and Nikki trying to find something to do to save her from her boredom. After 2 and half hour of pointless floating around the mansion, she found herself in some kinda library. _"Well, there must be at least one book that I can stand reading"_ she thought as she started to stride up and down the long lines of shelves. She soon discovered that most of the books contained business related stuff. Or at least that was what she guessed; many of the titles seemed strange and unfamiliar to her, but she finally found a book worth spending time with – it was about computers. Nikki had always liked computers; they opened a door to something that you could almost call freedom and if you knew how to use it – this freedom could be almost limitless…

She spent the next hour reading the book until she heard a noise coming from downstairs. _"Mokuba must be home!"_ Nikki thought and carefully placed the book back in its rightful location before she went downstairs to greet Mokuba.

"Hi!" Mokuba greeted her, "found anything interesting?"

Nikki smiled at him; she'd told him the day before that she had spent the day roaming around the mansion. At first she wasn't sure how he would react, but he understood her need to at least do something and he accepted it.

"I found the library" she answered.

"Did you actually find something to read in Seto's library?!" Mokuba starred at her in disbelief, "what about?"

"Computers" she answered shyly.

"You like computers?" Nikki just nodded.

"Why didn't you say so? I'll show you my computer and you can use it tomorrow" he said.

Nikki felt liking jumping around in joy, but resisted the temptation; her body was still immensely sore.

The rest of the day went as before, though except for one little detail: Kaiba showed up just as they finished eating. Nikki felt like getting sick when she met his cold gaze, but she refused to look away.

"If you want those bandages of yours changed come with me" he just said and turned around.

Nikki scrambled from her chair and almost had to run to keep up with Kaiba. This was too much for her body; she uttered a small moan and would have falling face forward if a couple of strong arms haven't caught her.

Kaiba heard and small noise behind him and just turned in time to catch the falling girl. He sighed exhausted, the task of caring for this girl was starting to get more and more demanding. He helped her to her feet and couldn't help noticing that her cheeks turned into a slight pink colour. He ignored it and started to walk again, though a little more slowly than before.

When they got to her room he just told her to drop her sweater and left. Going after the bandages Nikki guessed.

She started the troublesome progress of removing the sweater and then sat down on the bed. She felt anxious being alone like this and very vulnerable being almost half naked. She looked down at her bra, which didn't cover much and didn't look very pretty either. The bra was torn here and there and there was dried blood on it.

Before Nikki had figured out where the blood had come from Kaiba stepped in carrying the bandages.

He gestured Nikki to stand up. She did. "Put your arms above your head" he added in an emotionless voice which left Nikki with the feeling of stepping into a VERY cold shower.

Kaiba slowly began the process of removing the old bandages around her lower chest. Nikki's unease soon was overtaken by a strange spinning in her skin where his fingers sometimes accidently touched.

She felt Kaiba's hands lifting her waist long hair over her shoulder so it wouldn't be wrapped in the bandage. "Why do you have… claw marks? On your shoulder?"

"_Shit!"_ she thought, starting to panic "_That damn dog left a scar?!" _before Nikki had time to answer she felt a cold hand tracing something on her neck. Nikki felt her knees starting to shake; this was the reason why she always wore her hair down. "What's that?" he asked snapping her out of her raising panic, "and don't tell me you don't know about this scar. Someone did this to you." His cold voice cut through her and she remembered the night this voice saved her. She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly.

Kaiba was quite startled, not to find a scar on her back; that he knew she had, but to find a scar actually resembling something, he didn't anticipate. He traced the white lines of the scar resembling the letter S.

Kaiba felt her starting to shiver and then her heard her inhale before she said: "M-m-my stepfathers name is S-s-stephan." For some reason Kaiba didn't believe her.

But before he could follow the thought further the girl collapsed in his arms. "_What?!! The damn girl actually forgot to breath?" _Kaiba thought frustrated. He rolled his eyes and cursed quietly before lifting her up and putting her down in the bed. He then continued bandaging her chest and then moved on to her hand.

When he was done he looked at his work. The bandages sat where they were supposed to be and didn't seem too tight or too loose. His eyes stopped when they reached her bra, it was torn and blood smeared, "_and god knows when she last changed" _he thought almost tired "_guess I also need to provide her with new underwear"._

He let his eyes slip up and down her body once more before he covered her with the blanket and left the room.

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**Did you like it? did you not? please let me know and review ;) I'll try and update soon...**


	6. Chapter 6 Shopping?

**'ello everybody! I can't describe how sorry I am for not updating sooner -.-' I just didn't really have the time since school started again (what a bore!). But anyway here's the next chapter, which is the longest so far! There really isn't that much "action" and so on in this chapter, but it's kinda needed so you'll just have to cope :3**

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**Shopping?**

Kaiba sat in his office, staring into the air. He'd just got off a telephone call with what's-the-idiot's-name-again and he was in a foul mood. He snapped out of the trance as he heard someone knocking on the door.

"Come in" he said tired.

Mokuba slowly opened the door and peek at Kaiba. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Kaiba sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. He really didn't want to work anymore this evening and it had been some time since he last spent some time with his brother.

"Sure, I'm done here anyway" He said gesturing Mokuba to come in and close the door.

Mokuba went over to Kaiba's desk, but instead of sitting opposite Kaiba in the most uncomfortable chair ever (Kaiba wanted to make people as uncomfortable as possible if they wasted his time), he jumped up on the desk and sat right in front of his big brother.

"How does she look?" Mokuba asked to break the silence between them. When his brother told him about the S-scar and the claw marks he went silent again.

"_Hmm that is kinda weird… This doesn't really seem like an abusive stepfather… and I'd know" _he added with a snort. Kaiba looked at him, hearing him snort and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Mokuba looked at his feet wondering if he should let his brother in on his suspicions.

"I think Nikki is hiding something… something that seems far worse that what she has told us and…" he looked up at his brother and continued "… and I think she is really haunted by it… far more than she shows".

Mokuba continued to look at his brother, waiting for some kind of response.

Kaiba didn't notice; he was in deep thought over this new information. Sure, he had had his suspicions too, but he knew that he was kinda paranoid when it came to other people and therefore Mokuba's observations did give his own quite a boost.

"well," he said looking at his little brother "I aint going to waste a lot of money on a private detective to tell us something we know after half a year… and" he added "she'll regret the day she run away from home if she lies to me." His gaze went ice cold at the last statement and Mokuba felt a shiver running down his spine; his brother could be pretty spooky sometimes.

He jumped off the table and started to work towards the door. "By the way" Kaiba's voice stopped him, "I need you to go shopping with her soon… She can't keep wearing MY clothes and besides… she needs new underwear".

Mokuba's jaw dropped to the floor (figuratively speaking). It took some time before he got his voice back and then he turned pretty pink "I can't take a girl shopping not to mention to help her buy underwear!" Mokuba felt his face get hotter and hotter, he wasn't that good with girls.

"well," his brother answered with a amused smirk "I don't have the time and the only servants working here are men… but if you really are that uncomfortable, maybe you should call that…" he's face almost twisted in disgust "… that friendships-cheerleader and get her to tag along."

Kaiba really didn't want to have his little brother hanging out with those losers, but they made him happy. And that Gardner-girl could probably help him with the "underwear-problem".

Mokuba's face lit up. He always liked spending time with Tea. He decided that he would call her immediately and started to walk towards the door again until his brother's voice stopped him once more. "You can tell her what happened to the girl, but nothing more. And don't say anything about the fire or the man or what we have discussed… just say I found her in one of the warehouses and… "He paused making sure his little brother understood this fully "she is not allowed to tell any of her little friends about the girl."

Mokuba just nodded and went out to call Tea.

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Two days later:

"_Damn this class is boring" _Tea thought while staring out the window, only listening with half an ear. She thought back at the phone call she'd gotten last night. "_Wonder who Mokuba wants me to meet? He actually seemed a little desperate… ah well, he asked this as a favor friend-to-friend so of course I'll help him, but I just wonder why I'm not allowed to tell the guys about it??" _She let out a sigh and tried to concentrate about what the teacher said.

Finally, school was over and Tea walked out of the class, now trying to figure out how she best could avoid her friends being overcurious about her driving home with Mokuba. "_I'll take it as it comes"_ she thought and walked out into the cold.

Suddenly she heard noises behind her… or more like yelling, Joey wasn't really known for being discrete. Tea quickly slipped through a group of students, feeling relieved when she saw Mokuba's limousine waiting right outside the school grounds. She quickly got in and the car roared to life. She leaned back in the leather seats and let out a sigh. Boy, was she going to hear for this tomorrow. She sighed yet another time and turned her attention to the raven-haired boy beside her; "Okay Mokuba, what's this all about?"

Tea's jaw drop and she felt a little moisture in her eyes. What Mokuba had just told her was awful! "_Poor girl…" _she thought. "eh let me get this straight… you want me to go with the two of you shopping?" Tea asked staring at him in disbelief.

Mokuba felt his face turn red and he shifted a bit in his seat; "Yeah… she needs some new clothes and underwear... and I can't take a girl shopping for underwear!" now he was getting really red, "besides I think it would help her a lot to get a friend".

Tea's eyes softened considerably at the last sentence. Whatever this girl had been through she would be her friend!

Nikki walked restlessly around the big mansion. Mokuba had told her that she was going to meet one of his friends and they would go shopping. "_Shopping! Of all things, he wants me to go shopping…" _she thought for not the first time today. Deep down inside she knew that she needed new clothes, but she'd finally admitted to herself that she was scared… scared to death practically! She let herself fall onto the stairs and buried her face in her hands – she been on the edge the entire day and she hadn't even been able to relax at the computer which was a first. "_They are out there…" _she thought in despair, "_HE is out there! It's just a matter of time…"_

Her head snapped up when she heard a car in the driveway and on shaking legs she slowly started walked towards the door. The car outside honked just as she turned the handle and stepped out into the sun. A cold wind hit her face, but right at that moment she didn't care – this was the first time she'd been out for almost a week. She closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh air.

Mokuba looked at her through the tinted windows of the limousine. He'd seen fear in Nikki's eyes as she walked out into the open, but as always it had quickly disappeared. The corners of his mouth bend slightly upwards when he saw the peaceful expression on her face. She looked a lot better than when he'd first seen her; her nose was healing fine and the swelling was gone thanks to some of Dr. Jones "magic". The area around her eye had turned into a deep purple-ish colour, but there the swelling was also gone. A slight wind caught her waist-long chocolate brown hair making it almost sparkle.

Mokuba wasn't the only one looking at the girl with interest. Tea too found the girl very intriguing. "_Poor thing" _she thought as she again felt her eyes watering; she quickly blinked the tears away and took a closer look at the girl. She was pretty, Tea could tell even from the distance, but her eyes immediately locked themselves on the purple eye. They then travelled further down to Nikki's left hand and her eyes widened; it was covered in bandages. Sure she was used to Joey and Tristan having bruises all the time from all the fights they got into, but the effect on this girl, who looked so fragile, was so different and yet again Tea felt a tear in the corner of her eyes, "_Poor girl..."_

Nikki opened her eyes and the peaceful moment was gone and the fear started crawling back from the corner of her mind. She slowly exhaled and cautiously walked towards the car. She was nervous – who was this friend she was going to met? She cursed the tinted windows; she didn't like it when she wasn't fully aware of everyone around her.

The door opened revealing a smiling Mokuba; "Get in! I've got someone I want you to meet."

Nikki slowly got into the car making sure she could get out immediately if the situation called for it, but she was surprised when she discovered that Mokuba's friend was in fact a girl. Nikki felt herself relax as she eyed the stranger, who curiously did the same.

"Nikki, this is Tea. Tea, this is Nikki." Mokuba said and broke the somewhat awkward silence that had appeared.

Tea took the first stepped and reach her hand towards Nikki, who slowly lifted her own and answered the handshake while looking Tea straight in the eyes.

Tea glanced back at the strange girl's deep blue eyes and found herself a bit surprised of how many feelings were displayed in them: fear, mistrust and awareness, but also warmth and determination. "Nice to meet you" Tea said with a smile and let go of her hand.

"Nice to meet you too" Nikki answered and gave Tea a small, but honest smile. There was something about Tea which made her relax, the same something that also made her relax with Mokuba and she got the feeling she could actually trust her...

"well, let's get going!" Mokuba yelled enthusiastically and the limo began to move.

They drove for about 15 minutes until they reached one of the many malls in Domino. It wasn't the biggest, but Mokuba figured that this would be the one with least people. He didn't want to stress Nikki more than necessary. With that thought he cast a quick side-glance in her direction and he frowned when he saw her unsettled face.

Mokuba motioned to the limo-driver that he should follow as a bodyguard – just in case...

When they entered the mall Tea took control and quickly led Nikki and Mokuba towards a store. Nikki got slightly overwhelmed at the sight, she never really been shopping before, but before she could dwell anymore at that thought she felt some fabric being shoved in her hands and looked down only to find that she was now holding two pairs of jeans. Tea just smiled at her and guided her towards the fitting rooms.

After half an hour of endless clothing try-outs they left the shop with multiple bags and Tea ushered them towards a lingerie store. When they reached the entrance Mokuba stopped and smiled sheepishly at the two girls; "You go, I'll stay out here and wait."

Tea smiled knowingly at the younger boy's face, which was turned redder by the minute and ushered Nikki inside.

They did the same as in the other store; Tea roaming around the store finding different items while Nikki stayed in the fitting room trying endless streams of bras and panties.

"So... Mokuba told me your story" Tea said as to break the silence.

Nikki just shrugged; she'd figured that much.

"...and you're staying at the Kaiba-masion?"

Nikki nodded in confirmation concentration very hard on her mirror image.

"How do you get along with Kaiba?"

The question startled Nikki and she looked Tea's reflection in the eyes.

Tea noticed her shocked stare and quickly continued: "No it's nothing like that! It's just because he tends to be a little cold-hearted and..." she paused and looked down "... and I really worry about you..."

Nikki got even more startled. She turned around and hugged her new found friend, leaving Tea startled too. "Thank you..."

It was first when they left the store with yet another load of bags that Tea realized Nikki never answered her question...

They met up with Mokuba outside the store and started walking towards the exit, when Nikki paused gazing towards another store. Mokuba followed her gaze and saw a hair-dresser's. He looked questioningly at Nikki.

"ehh do you mind?" she asked a little anxious, "it's just because it's been so long since it was last cut and the length is really starting to annoy me."

"Not at all" Mokuba smiled as she nodded and went to the store. It wasn't entirely true – he really liked her long silky hair, but he got the feeling that the reason for the haircut wasn't the length annoying her but rather the length making her more recognizable.

After half an hour Nikki came out again and Tea and Mokuba's jaws dropped. Her hair had been cut short very short in fact, just beneath her ears and it had been styled so she looked like she just woke up. She actually looked like a pixie; "_A very cute pixie..." _Mokuba thought by himself.

Tea was the first to say anything, "Wauw! That just looks amazing!" she exclaimed, making Nikki blush. "Thanks" she said, not daring to look her companions in the eyes.

The new look didn't chance her appearance as much as she had wished, but at least she was pretty unrecognizable from behind now. She had considered dyeing it too, but she figured that would make them suspicious.

The three of them walked out the mall, got into the limo and drove off. Nobody noticing the dark figure which had been lurking in the shadows through their entire trip.

Nikki closed the door to her room and threw all the clothes on the bed. She stepped back and viewed the "harvest" of the day.

She'd never had this much clothes in her entire life! Slowly she picked each item up and looked at it. After 10 minutes she'd chosen her outfit and started to change.

"_Wauw... these are just amazing! Tea really knows how to pick out clothes" _she thought while slowly pulling on some rather tight jeans _"They just fit perfectly! I wonder if Kaiba will li... No! Why do I care what he thinks?!"_

Nikki shook her head to get rid of the ridiculous thoughts, but she couldn't quite ignore the tickling in her skin where he'd touch her when he changed the bandages.

"_Which reminds me... He has to do it tonight again!! Argh!! I can't take this anymore.. why me?"_ She finally buttoned her jeans with one hand and got to the difficult task of pulling on a sweater – even though she looked better and certainly also felt better, her body still hurt like hell.

After 15 minutes she stood in front of the mirror to view the result, only to find that a rather strange pixie-like girl looked back at her. She walked closer and gave herself the infamous top-to-bottom-look: She actually liked her new hair style, even though it, with her skinny appearance, gave her the above-mentioned pixie-look. The clothes she'd chosen were simple; a pair of ordinary dark blue jeans and a black sweater, which looked suspiciously similar to the one she had borrowed from a certain blue-eyed CEO.

Suddenly someone knocked at the door making Nikki flinch. "_I really got to get rid of that habit... the bad guys never knock anyway"._

"Nikki, dinner's ready!" she heard Mokuba yell through the door. She quickly opened the door and followed Mokuba to the kitchen.

They'd just sat down when the door flung open, revealing a rather pissed Seto Kaiba. No one said a word as he strode to the room and seated himself in the chair right across from Nikki's.

"Tough day at work, huh?" Kaiba didn't say a word he just looked at his brother and then slumped back in his seat with a big sigh.

"I'm surrounded by imbeciles, idiots and gorillas... and apparently it's not enough for them just to do nothing... Nooo, they have to ruin things too!" he threw his hands in the air at the last remark; "I had to fire 5 today, which means I now have to find 5 new people to replace them.." he finished of grumbling something about "waste of time".

Mokuba could see that his brother just needed to let out some steam and therefore remained silent. And just as he had expected; when Kaiba was done talking (or more like ranting) he relaxed a bit and started eating.

They all remained silent through the meal. Mokuba was just happy finally to spend some time with his big brother, Nikki was too intimidated by Kaiba's outburst to say anything and Kaiba was busy eyeing up the girl in front of him.

He knew they had been shopping today, but he hadn't expected her to get a new haircut too. He found that he actually rather like this new hair-do; it made her look more alive and it just seemed more fitting to her personality. Besides, the short hair gave him an unobstructed view to her long, slim neck... He frowned; the thought of her neck immediately brought a picture of the S-shaped scar up and his frown turned to a look of disgust – how could anyone to such a thing to such a girl?

Nikki had been watching Kaiba through her lowered eyelashes and she felt her stomach turn as she saw the changing expressions in his face – first something that looked like curiosity, then seriousness and eventually disgust! Did he really hate her that much?

Nikki let out a sigh and continued her meal.

When Kaiba later on changed her bandages she remained as silent as he did.

Why did he hate her? Why did it bother her? And why did she feel a tear running down her chin as she lay in the bed, trying to sleep?

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***Jaws-theme song***

**Did you like it?? did ya?? Argh come on! admit that you loved it! Please review *puppy eyes* **

**I'll try to update as soon as possible!**


	7. Chapter 7 The Hack

**Finally! it's here! Chapter 7!! I'm so sorry I haven't updated for a while, but it seems that the teachers have come up with a plan to take over world domination by giving the students an endless stream of homework *grrr*, but now the winter holidays has just uand I'M FREE!! *victory dance***

**Anyway; on with the story!**

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Chapter 7:

"Yo Tea! Where did ya go yesterday huh?" Joey yelled across the classroom as he entered.

Tea sighed, she'd been expecting this... _"This is what you get from having too nosy friends."_

"I have no idea what you're talking about Joey... and I would really appreciate it if you'd lower your voice a bit – I don't feel like arguing with you in front of the class." Tea answered in at a more normal volume seeing that Joey had reached her table, now with Yugi and Tristan close behind.

"Com' on... Ya know what I'm talkin' 'bout... Ya just vanished without saying anythin' to us... I know what ya did! Ya went to see some guy! Am I right? Am I right?" Joey fired back before he sat down on her desk. Yugi looked slightly shocked... not to mention worried.

"_Grrrr I'm going to kill him!" _Tea thought, mentally planning how that best could be done.

"It's not everything I do concerns you! I just needed to do something! If you absolutely have to know I was doing a friend a favour and now leave it at that!" she exclaimed while slamming her books onto the table... which startled Joey so much that he fell from her desk.

He raised his hands in defence: "easy now... Just bein' a bit curious – that's all."

"You don't have to tell us everything now" Yugi said as he laid a hand on her shoulder giving her a reassuring smile. Tea relaxed and was just about to thank Yugi when the teacher arrived. The class had begun.

Nikki woke to the sun shining through the curtains which was evilly hitting her face. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes trying to adjust to the unusually bright room. Why hadn't she drawn the curtains last night?

"_Oh yeah... I remember now – I'm for some reason deeply depressed by the fact Kaiba loathes me, instead of being depressed because I've been beaten up, my body still hurts like hell and I'm sure they haven't stopped looking... Welcome to my life!"_ She thought with bitter sarcasm.

She pressed the pillow over her face and screamed...

Feeling somehow relieved she got up, dressed and started to walk down to the kitchen. It was yet another school day for Mokuba, which meant that Nikki had to find something to pass time with. She glanced at the clock; "_Argh dammit! It's only 9 o'clock – that's 6 fucking hours I have to spend alone!"_

Little did she know that she in fact wasn't alone. Kaiba had decided that he'd sooner break an arm before returning to his office in KC today. The mere thought of the 5 he had had to fire, was enough to make him snap, which would only lead to the discharge of more people. But all this Nikki was "happily" oblivious of...

She had decided to spend some of the day at the laptop Mokuba had provided her with, so after her breakfast she returned to her room and turned on the computer.

In the last few days since Mokuba had given her the pc Nikki's fingers had been aching to try it for herself. She hadn't dared before even though she had almost tried yesterday when she'd done some research on Kaiba Corp. So today was the day – she going to put Kaiba's security to the test.

Her skilled fingers moved across the keyboard pressing in the required codes, she wasn't as fast as she usually was since she could only use one hand because of the damn three broken fingers. And for maybe the 100th time she coursed the damn man, who had done this to her, to the deepest circle of hell...

She was a self-taught hacker and due to her spending hours and hours locked up in her room she was a damn good one!

She took a deep breath and started to type... Her eyes flickered across the screen as she reached the firewall, which she broke through so easily that she had to stop in pure wonderment; "_What the... how could it possibly take them that long to crack this?! And why doesn't Kai..."_ Her trail of thought was abruptly stopped when she reached yet another obstacle.

A small smirk spread across Nikki's face as her fingers start moving again and after a few minutes she was through... only to reach another wall...

At the same time in Kaiba's office a small window appeared in the corner of his screen. He looked at it; a frown on his face, which slowly turned into a cold smirk. "_Bring it on!"_

He leaned back it his chair and waited... The protection on his computer was something that he himself at created. It consisted of 5 "firewalls" – the first was easy, any hacker with some skill could break through it. The second was a little harder, but only barely – it was then an alarm would go of on his computer. The third was where things started to get interesting; when someone tried to break through it, it would automatically send a small virus back into the hacker's computer. The virus played two roles: firstly to track down the hacker and secondly, when the hacker had been found, destroy the hacker's computer beyond repair. The fourth and fifth wall weren't really necessary, but Kaiba didn't take any chances – they were completely and utterly unbreakable.

So all he had to do was to wait and once he had learned the hacker's location he would send his men.

Nikki bit her lower lip; this had to be the hardest hack she'd ever made – she'd tried almost everything and she wasn't one step closer on "breaking and entering". She decided on one last try.

Kaiba stared at his screen with a mixture of confusion and joy; the hacker was starting to slowly gnaw his way through the wall – this had turned out to be a race against time: Who'd finish first? The hacker or the virus?

Kaiba felt a wave of excitement rush over his body, this was the longest anyone had ever reached before. He knew that a relatively talented hacker could make it this far, but such a hacker had never bothered – they knew they couldn't go all the way; the fourth and fifth wall were the real killers.

A few rooms away Nikki felt a similar excitement rush through her body; she was almost through!

"_Gotcha!" _Kaiba thought triumphantly as the virus found the location just as the hacker broke through. "_Looks like we have a tide..."_

His smirk turned into a frown when he saw the location; "_What the fuck!? The hacker is... inside the mansion?!"_ There could only be one explanation... he quickly got up...

"_Gotcha!"_ Nikki thought, just as triumphantly as a certain billionaire had done it just seconds ago, when she broke through the wall.

Her triumph quickly turned to fear as the computer started acting on its own. "_It's like it's been... Infected!"_ She typed frantically with one hand; trying everything just to get the computer to stop, but it was to no avail – the computer literally died...

Nikki kept staring at the screen unable to figure out what the hell just happened, but she was quickly snapped out it when the door behind her flew open.

She'd never seen Kaiba this angry before; his face was, if possible, even more emotionless than normal, but his eyes... Nikki felt a shiver run down her spine when she saw his eyes – the normal icy blue eyes were cold beyond every measurement and even though she stubbornly tried to hold his glance she failed miserably.

Kaiba was angry... no, pissed was more the word; how dare that little wench hack into his system?! _"Wait a second" _a thought suddenly hit him, "_Maybe I could take advantage of this..."_

Was it her or did it seem like Kaiba's anger eased a bit? Whatever it was he still continued his path towards her and she felt a rising urge to hide under the bed.

"Get up!" his voice almost literally cut through the air and Nikki felt like she'd been hit by a wall; she slowly started to get up...

Which apparently wasn't quick enough for Kaiba, because suddenly he grabbed her arm and yanked her upright. Nikki felt a stab of pain go through her ribs and had to bite inner cheek hard to avoid screaming... she started to taste blood...

Maybe Kaiba saw the pained expression in her face or maybe he didn't, but he lessened his iron grip around her upper arm and let her stand on her own accord.

"Follow me."

Nikki did as he said without any comments whatsoever and they headed towards his office.

Once they reached it Nikki dropped down in the chair in front of his desk, feeling relieved; her legs felt like they were made of jelly.

Kaiba positioned himself in his own chair and started to type a series of commands on his laptop. Nikki started to wish that the earth would swallow her, _"what's going to happen?"_ she thought feeling more and more unsettled, one worse-case-scenario after another playing through her mind... but what did happened she had never expected..

Suddenly Kaiba stopped typing and turned his computer around so that it now was facing Nikki. "Try to hack through this" was his only words.

Nikki just stared dumbfounded at him, unable to understand what he meant.

Kaiba sighed heavily and started to rub his temples, "_Damn this girl is giving me a headache."_

"Try. to. hack. through. this." He said deliberately talking slowly as if trying to explain something for a child.

Nikki slowly moved her chair towards the desk and then started the progress of hacking through whatever Kaiba had come up with.

Soon Nikki's mind was fully focused on the problem that lay before her and her right hand fingers rapidly moved across the keyboard until... "Done" she said triumphantly until she remembered her position; she quickly lowered her gaze and waited for Kaiba to say something.

Kaiba turned the laptop back towards him and he looked at her with a calculating expression in his ice-blue eyes.

"_She did it in a fairly good time and she managed to cover all of her traces." _He thought casting a glance at the girl in front of him.

"You need to answer quite a few questions."

Something in his voice told Nikki that this wasn't a request – this was a direct order.

"Why?"

"I-I d-don't really know... I guess I just wanted to see how far I could go?"

She looked at him through her lashes finding an expression of mild disbelief in his face, but after a minute he asked another question:

"Who taught you to hack?"

Nikki tried to look him in the eyes, but failed yet again. Instead she focused her gaze on her trembling hands.

"I'm self-taught... M-my s-stepfather often locked me in my room and there wasn't really much besides a computer to do some schooling on in there, so that's where I spend most of my time..."

She paused and cast a small glance at him; seeing as he had a you're-not-done-talking-yet-look in his eyes, she continued her story:

"The only problem was that anything besides certain things on the computer was blocked and so I started to find ways in which I could dodge these blocks..."

Nikki closed her eyes and remembered the feeling she'd gotten when she'd finally broken through – a warmth spread through her body and her hands stopped trembling.

"I found that I had a talent for this and I liked the idea that I at least had some sort of freedom so I started to explore and learn more... and that's really it".

Nikki finally looked up and found that Kaiba seemed to be in deep thoughts.

Several minutes passed away until he finally spoke:

"It seems like it's time for you to make yourself a bit useful and seeing that you can use a computer fairly with one hand, you can start by working for me... As you know I'm five people short."

Nikki's jaw dropped to the floor, "M-me w-working for you? What would I do?"

"_This is getting out of hand! Why is that man never acting the way I think he is going to act?! Argh!! He is driving me crazy!!"_

"Mainly research. You seem to be fast at a computer, which is an important ability, and you can hack – which is also very useful seeing that I sometimes need information that aren't... what shall we call it? "open to public" if you understand what I'm saying?"

"I do."

"Good. So here is how we're going to do this: according to Dr. Jones you have to stay here at least a month if not longer and it only seems fittingly that you should repay the favour. When you're fully recovered you can do whatever you want, but if you proving yourself useful I may consider hiring you for "real". Any objections?"

"N-no." Nikki managed to stutter. "_Whoa... what just happened? I'm going to work... for him?!"_

"Then we're done here... I'll get you a new computer tomorrow seeing that the one Mokuba gave you is now pretty useless."

Nikki felt the dismissal tone in his words and started to get up. When she reach the door and started to turn the handle Kaiba spoke again:

"Oh... and Nikki – don't EVER try to hack my system again."

The message in his words was crystal clear and she quickly stepped out of the room.

After sitting an hour in her bed just staring into the air trying to grasp what had just happened Mokuba came home and she spent the rest of the day with him.

She didn't see the elder Kaiba brother more that day, which was fine by her even though she couldn't help hoping and fearing that he might show up. The only question was: Which feeling was the strongest? Fear or hope?

When she lay in her bed that evening she realized something – even though Kaiba had giving her a serious warning that was the first time he'd ever used her name. The thought made a strange warmth grow in her chest and soon she fell asleep.

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**Well, this was the 7th chapter! I'd like to say that I am NOT a hacker or have the greatest computer-talent, so please don't pull your flamethrowers out if I've made a few computer term-ish mistakes ;) **

**Okay, enough babbling - Now it's time for you to review! I really hope you liked it :3 **


	8. Chapter 8 Kiss of a Butterfly

**Yippy!! Th second chapter in just ehh 3 days? I'm just the tiniest bit proud of myself XD **

**Before we start I'll like to thank all those who have reviewed, added the story as favourite and/or "alerted" it - THANK YOU! YOU'RE THE BEST :3**

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**Kiss of a Butterfly**

_A face. Slightly blurred as if surrounded by a thick mist. This was his only focus as Kaiba looked around in this grey and alien world. Where was he?_

_A light breeze wrapped around him caressing whatever skin was exposed. He turned his attention back to the mysterious face as the wind gently started to sweep away the mist revealing two deep blue eyes shining like sapphires in this gloomy world. They were like two bottomless pools of water; and soon he felt like he was caught in these mesmerizing orbs. His feet lifted off the ground and he started to fall – unable to resist the power of the blue eyes. He kept falling and the world around him turned black..._

Kaiba woke up with a start breathing heavily; had he been dreaming? He usually never dreamt – either because he didn't sleep or because when he finally did he fell into a deep unconscious and dreamless sleep. He ran a hand through his locks before looking at the clock. He cursed; it was only 5 am.

Fifteen minutes later he sat in the kitchen drinking a large cup of extremely black coffee while he mused over his dream. For some reason (maybe quite obvious ones) he had a pretty good idea of who those eyes belonged to. He cursed slightly as he remembered the strange feeling he had gotten when he started to fall into the two pools and...

He shook his head violently to stop his thoughts from moving in that direction any further and took an enormous sip of his caffeine-disguised-as-coffee. When he'd emptied the cup he left the mansion and drove to KC.

As he walked through the almost empty building (remember it's Saturday) he started to feel like himself again. Sadly this only lasted until something dark blue caught his eyes and his thought were immediately turned back to his dream. He sighed as he reached his office preparing himself for another day of tiring work.

Several hours later...

Nikki woke up to... nothing really – she just woke up, feeling a bit cheerier than yesterday.

She got out of bed and walked to the closet to find something to wear. As she looked to her collection of newly bought bras she couldn't help think that tonight Kaiba had to change the bandages yet again, "_Argh! I'm so pathetic! Kaiba probably doesn't even look at me so why should I care what I wear?! Especially underwear... get a grip you stupid girl – you acting like you're some kinda lovesick teenager trying to impress her crush!"_

Nikki's mental scolding lasted as long as it took her to pick her "outfit" and much to her own embarrassment she couldn't help picking one of the more chic bras. "_I'm just so pathetic... pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic. PATHETIC! What the hell am I trying to obtain?"_ she didn't know the answer to that question... or maybe she didn't want to...

Nikki decided that she needed something to take her mind of things and she went to find Mokuba.

They ate breakfast together while Mokuba chatted away about this and that, and Nikki actually found herself starting to relax, even though she ached to find out where the older brother where.

Luckily Mokuba unknowingly answered her question:

"Big brother always works so much... he is in the middle of establishing a minor tournament in Kaibaland next weekend and of course he needs to get all the details settled, all by himself..." he rolled his eyes at the thought.

Then Mokuba's face suddenly lit up in a smile, "By the way, do you know how to play duel monsters?"

Nikki couldn't help but smile at this sudden change in moods, she shook her head. She'd never had the opportunity.

"Well then, let's go play! I'll teach you! I'm not as good as Seto, but I'm not half-bad either..."

Nikki just hid a grin behind her hand as she followed the enthusiastic boy as they made their way to his room.

As you may have guessed the two of them spent the day together in Mokuba's room – Nikki suffering one defeat after another, but she enjoyed herself and for a long time all the troubles were forgotten...

Reality hit hard as the clock showed 6.30 pm and the front door slammed shut. Kaiba was home...

Mokuba and Nikki had just started to eat their dinner as Kaiba entered the kitchen and without a word he just sat down and started to eat.

They mostly spent the meal in silence except for the occasional small-talk between Nikki and Mokuba.

But just as Nikki thought Kaiba would leave them without saying a single word he suddenly addressed her: "I need to get some work done so I'll have to change the bandages later tonight."

Nikki just nodded and with that Kaiba left the room.

When the clock turned 9, Nikki went to her room leaving Mokuba to watch some action movie on the biggest plasma screen Nikki had ever seen.

To do something to keep her mind occupied she went to the library to retrieve the book about computers and then went back to her room and started reading...

Finally, when the clock showed 11.30 pm she heard a knock on the door and Kaiba entered.

"It took longer than I'd estimated" he said as he closed the door behind him.

Nikki just nodded and got up from the bed – she slowly started to remove the green button-up blouse she was wearing. She didn't notice Kaiba facial expression as she dropped the blouse onto the bed.

Kaiba took a deep breath before walking over to her. He dropped the new bandages on the bed next to her blouse and started to remove the old ones. "It's looking better; it seems like you're fast healer."

Nikki didn't answer; she just enjoyed the feeling of his fingers brushing over her skin as he carefully unwrapped the bandages.

As he'd finished replacing the old bandages with the new ones securing the knot on her left side, Nikki noticed the dark rings under his eyes. "Are you okay?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. Kaiba raised his head and looked her in the eyes with a puzzled expression. Nikki blushed, "I mean you look tired..."

"I don't sleep very well" was his only answer as he finished the knot and started to gather the used bandages. Nikki made a decision.

"Ehm...this mind sound a bit strange, but one of the things I do remember about my mother was how she put me to sleep when I couldn't... May I try it on you?" she looked at him waiting for a response.

Kaiba just shrugged and started towards the door, Nikki following close behind him.

He discarded the bandages outside a door Nikki knew lead to a bathroom and continued towards his room.

If Nikki thought her room was big it was nothing compared to Kaiba's – it was just huge! But when Nikki had gotten used to the size of the room she noticed that it wasn't really that luxurious; instead it was simple and... nice?

"_Well... who'd have known – the guy has taste." _She thought dryly.

Kaiba went to the bathroom – probably to change and get ready to sleep, so Nikki carefully sat down on his king sizes bed.

About ten minutes went by and Kaiba reappeared.

Without a word he went over to the bed and lay down, "So... what do you intend to do?" he asked.

"Eh it's actually some kind of massage, though only your face and your hands... all you need to do is to relax and close your eyes."

Kaiba obeyed without any objections and Nikki began.

She gently placed her fingers on his forehead and started to move them around in little circles, after a while she let her fingers continue down to his cheekbone.

Kaiba slowly felt all his muscle relax and all the swirling thoughts in his head seemed to slow down as Nikki's fingers slowly moved around his face. He almost let out a satisfied groan when her fingers briefly touched his lip. After what seemed like only a moment her fingers left his face and slowly lifted his hand a bit.

Her small fingers soothingly travelled across his larger ones and he felt himself starting to doze off. In his half sleeping state he felt his hand gently being laid down on the bed.

A moment before he drifted into blissful unconsciousness he felt the lightest of touch on his lips. Did she just kiss him? He felt the bed shift as she got up and walked out the room.

As Kaiba drifted into sleep questions swirled around his head; why had she kissed him? It felt so real, but at the same time it reminded him of his dream. A warmth spread to his body starting at his lips which just moments ago had received the lightest of touch.

Like a kiss of a butterfly...

Outside his room Nikki stood pressed against the wall. Why did she do that?!

When she'd seen him fall asleep she just felt the urge to kiss his forehead, but when she bent down to do so her lips found his instead. Unconsciously her hand moved to touch her still tingling lips.

"_I never intended to do that! But did I want it?..."_ she refused to answer the question, "_Thank god he was asleep..."_

She walked back to her room and went to bed; and for once it was Kaiba who was peaceful asleep, while Nikki tossed and turned for hours unable to close her eyes...

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**Did you like it? or was it to "corny"?**

**I guess the dream was kinda me trying to bring a little "poetic" perspective into the story - hopefully it didn't scare you off XD **


	9. Chapter 9 Impressive Research

**Hmm this chapters tends to be a lot longer then I anticipate - this one for example was supposed to be one with the next, which I also think is going to be a biggy... ah well, I'll bet you'll survive ;)**

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Impressive Research**

Sunday went by without much excitement; Nikki did her best to avoid Kaiba and Kaiba tried to drown himself in work.

Both had a hard time understanding their feelings towards the episode and though their thoughts were different they both had a common goal: repressing anything just slightly close to their true feelings.

Nikki didn't do much except mentally kicking herself over and over again. She tried to suppress the reason for her mind's lack of control of her body (in especially her lips), instead she changed between the above mentioned kicking and gratefulness in terms of him being asleep... at least that was what she thought...

Kaiba's mind, on the other hand, firstly tried to figure out if the kiss was something he had dreamt or if it was real, secondly what the consequences in each case would be. His analytic mind methodically went through endless possibilities regarding the kiss: 1) If the kiss was real, why did she do it? 2) If it was a dream, why did he dream it?

The first scenario he explained with some kind of psychological reflex from Nikki's side towards him as her saviour. A simple infatuation...

As for the second scenario.... he couldn't find any logical explanation for that...

Mokuba was completely unaware of the rather common feelings the two were experiencing, but he noticed that Nikki seemed absent-minded and that his brother worked longer than he used to on a Sunday. If he had any theories concerning all this, he kept them to himself.

Monday didn't hold much to it either except for the fact that it was yet another dreaded change-the-bandages-day.

This Nikki found quite unsettling but when Kaiba finally arrived to get the job done, nothing really felt out of the ordinary until:

"As you may or may not know I'm holding a small tournament this Saturday and I was wondering if you want to come?" Kaiba ask softly, making Nikki heartbeat fasten. "Mokuba usually gets bored... besides you need to get out a little."

Even though Nikki didn't look at him she could practically hear his smirk when he said the last part.

"_Grrr... I'm starting to think he suffers from some kinda mental sickness... like schizophrenia – one minute he acts nice and the next he's an arrogant bastard... when I'm done here I need to see a psychiatrist..."_

As an answer Nikki just nodded.

"Good. With that settled I'd like to inform you that your new computer has arrived and your first task will be to research selected competitors in the upcoming tournament. I'll expect you to be finished Thursday at the latest. Understood?"

Nikki's mind already considered different methods to solve the "problem", completely forgetting the current situation.

"Do you want the rapport to be on paper or just on the computer?"

Kaiba thought about it for a moment, she had surprised him with her sudden calm and seriousness.

"On paper. I'll provide you with a printer. It should all be ready by tomorrow."

And with those words he left.

"_And Kaiba has left the building..."_ Nikki thought sarcastically as she crawled under the cover, not bothering to brush her teeth or anything else. She quickly fell asleep.

When Kaiba left her he went to work for another hour, trying to erase every thought of Nikki before going to bed. He almost succeeded until he lay in his bed. Again thoughts swirled through his mind and when he looked at the clock again, an hour had gone by.

Eventually he surrendered himself to the memory of Nikki's soft hands on his skin and he finally fell asleep.

Nikki woke around 9 on a grey and rainy Thursday morning. She lay in her bed for several minutes before she got up and went to the bathroom. When she'd showered and was fully dressed she made her way to the kitchen. There she found an Apple notebook, a piece of paper and the smallest transportable printer she'd ever seen and she immediately forgot everything about breakfast.

"_Whoa... it has its advantages to work for Kaiba" _Nikki thought as she let her fingers slide across the computer. She couldn't help it as a grin spread across her face and she decided that she might as well get started.

She grabbed a bun on her way out and stuffed it in her mouth since both her hands were fully occupied.

When Nikki had positioned herself on her bed with everything up and running she looked at the paper. On it was 14 duellists with name and picture. She stared at the paper for a while, _"What am I supposed to find?"_

She carefully leaned back against the wall.

"_What do I know? It's a duel monsters tournament. A minor one that is... hmm..."_

The little Nikki knew about Duel monsters was what Mokuba had taught her which she figured wasn't that much, so she opened google and typed two words: Duel monsters.

After three hours Nikki knew all there was to know about Duel monster (or at least a great deal) and she started to make a list of things she'd research: basic information, deck, tactics, experience, previous results, where and when did they learn it, from whom did they learn it, who did they hang around with and so on.

She'd finished half the list when her stomach growled viciously and she looked at the clock: 3 pm.

As Nikki reached the kitchen the front door slammed shut and Mokuba's voice could be heard through the entire mansion: "I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen!" she immediately yelled back and moments later Mokuba was by her side.

"Nice day at school?"

"Nah... boring... same as always" Mokuba answer before he grabbed half of Nikki sandwich.

"Hey! I was going to eat that... haven't had a thing since breakfast..."

"Huh? What have you been up to?" he asked as he put Nikki's sandwich back in its proper place and started to make his own.

"I've been working on the assignment your brother gave me. It's was more time consuming than I originally thought..."

"You've wha.." he started until he realized something, "Oh that's right... Seto mentioned something about you... working for him?" What was it Seto had said? Something about Nikki trying to hack into his system?

Nikki could hear the doubt in Mokuba's voice.

"Yeah... he noticed my ehh ability with computers when I kinda tried to hack him..." to Mokuba she sounded almost embarrassed "... and because of the people he'd fired he kinda hired me as a researcher."

Mokuba nodded, "So what's your first "job"?

"Uh well... I'm supposed to find information about some of the competitors in his tournament, but I'm only half way through... had to do some research about Duel monsters." She almost blushed; seemingly every person on the planet with a little self-respect knew about Duel monsters.

"Well?" Mokuba asked with a big grin on his face.

"Well what?"

"Ready for some more duelling then?"

"I'm sooo going to kick your ass!"

"As if!"

"Duh!"

They continued their bickering 'til they reached Mokuba's room, where they spent the rest of the day duelling (they even got their dinner brought there). Neither saw nor heard the older Kaiba.

The next day Nikki continued her assignment once she'd gotten ready for the day. Just like day before she positioned herself on the bed with her back against the wall.

She worked concentrated for the next two hours determined to finish the job today and she'd reached the second last name at the list when she stopped. "_Tea Gardner? Wasn't that the girl who went shopping with me?"_ Nikki quickly found a picture of her which confirmed her suspicion and she continued.

She soon discovered that Tea was a close friend of Yugi Muto, who even Nikki had heard about, and that even if she wasn't a famous duellist, she'd tagged along with Yugi to several bigger tournaments.

Nikki also discovered that another member of the group, which also included another top-duellist named Joey Wheeler, participated in the tournament, a certain Tristan Taylor who, much to her relieve, was the last name on her list.

When she'd checked for any kind of mistakes she printed the 60 pages long report out and went to get something to eat.

When she returned she decided to do some more background checking on this Yugi-fellow and was a bit surprised to see that he was close connected to Kaiba in a not so friendly way. She pondered about this for quite some time while her right-hand fingers danced across the keyboard on what seemed to be their own accord.

It wasn't until she heard the front door open and closed she realized it was almost 3 o'clock and she went down to join Mokuba.

As always they had a good time together, but this was abruptly interrupted as Kaiba showed up right after dinner. Nikki slowly stood up and followed him to her room.

"I think you can go without the bandages from now on" he said as he examined her ribs, "though you might want to keep the once on your hand."

Nikki couldn't help smile at the prospect of not having any bandages restraining her movements even thought her ribs were still sore as hell, but she also couldn't help feeling the tinniest bit sad that Kaiba didn't had to change them anymore.

This left Nikki confused; didn't she always dread having him so close? Then why did she feel like she was going to lose something important?

Ignoring Nikki silence and her blank stare Kaiba collected the used bandages and made his way to the door.

"WAIT!" Nikki almost yelled. Kaiba just raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"I've finished the report you asked for." She couldn't help feeling just a bit triumphant as she saw the surprised look on Kaiba's face.

She tried to hold back a giggle as she handed him the considerable amount of paper. Kaiba actually looked impressed.

He left without a word and Nikki let herself fall down on the bed. She suddenly felt completely exhausted.

Kaiba sat in his office reading through the report, his eyebrow moving higher and higher until it almost vanished under his bangs. This far exceeded his expectations. The girl had actually done a good job – no, an excellent job.

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**I don't really have much to say except for thank you for reading and please review :3 **


	10. Chapter 10 The Tournament

**Hello everybody! I'm am so sorry it took me so long to update... I really am and I'll try to keep this to a minimum. **

**But before we start I'd like to you all that I've gotten a beta! :3 so now you don't have to put up with my mistakes! XD **

**A big thank-you to DaAmazingMeepers for helping me out.**

**And now! on with the story... Enjoy!**

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**The Tournament**

The man cursed and looked at the sky as the first drop hit his nose. He quickly found cover under a tree, pulled out his cell phone and dialed a memorized number. As the phone rang the rain increased and soon it was pouring down. Finally he heard the familiar voice of the answering machine. "It's confirmed. She'll be at the tournament tomorrow." And with those words he hung up and started running towards an awaiting car.

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Nikki glanced out the window and sighed for what seemed to be the 67th time. She was bored. Beside her lay the finished assignment Kaiba had given her yesterday; background checks on the new applicants. Not particularly interesting.

She looked at the clock and growled in frustration. It was only 4 pm. "_What's a girl supposed to do?! What do ordinary people do Friday afternoons?"_ She thought about it for a moment, "_Go shopping? No way. See friends? Haven't gotten any…well, except for Tea, but you can't really go visiting her now, can you? Work? Snowballs chance in hell. ARGH! I'm going crazy!"_

At this time she'd normally hang with Mokuba, but he was with some friends and wouldn't return until later. "_What did I used to do?"_ she shuddered at the thought and got up, deciding to at least to something physically.

Kaiba had unlocked the door to the garden, but due to the damn rain she couldn't even go out to get some fresh air. A door slammed and Nikki felt a wave of relieve floating through her. Mokuba was home.

She quickly began running towards the stairs, but stopped. Yesterday Mokuba had jumped her as she entered the kitchen and now it was payback time!

So instead of using the main stairs, she sneaked down a little staircase she'd found on one of her many explorations. It led down to the kitchen. "_Just perfect!"_ she thought as she hid behind the door, figuring Mokuba would go to the kitchen for a snack.

And true enough the door started to open and Nikki jumped. It wasn't until she was midair she realized her mistake.

Kaiba had had a rough day at the office and thought he'd take a cup of coffee before focusing on the final details for tomorrow. Feeling a bit more relaxed by being home he entered the kitchen—

Only to get hit by something flying through the air. Suddenly he found himself on the floor... with a girl on top of him?!

Nikki's first thought was: "_Might have used a little too much force."_Her second thought was: "_Oh shit!"_

Now beneath her was none other than the almighty Seto Kaiba, the fearsome leader of KaibaCorp.

And she couldn't help giggling as she saw the perplexed look in his eyes. "_Bet this is the first time he'd been knocked over by a flying girl..."_

As his eyebrows vanished under his bangs her giggling turned into laughter and it took her several minutes to get a hold on herself.

"If you have finished I'd be delighted if you would move away. I seriously need a cup of coffee." Kaiba said to the now panting girl (who still was on top of him), trying to ignore the warmth spreading in his skin everywhere their bodies touched.

For some reason Nikki hadn't realized the rather compromising position they were in until now; he was flat on his back while she was straddling his lower stomach with her thighs, supporting herself with both hands on his chest. She could feel blood rushing to her cheeks and quickly (very quickly) stumbled of him. "Ehh... s-sorry 'bout that... thought you were Mokuba." She managed to stutter.

Kaiba slowly got up and groaned. How could such a seemingly frail girl hit that hard?

"I'd prefer it if you'd double-check next time you decide to jump someone." He just said as he made his way to the coffee machine, still ignoring the strange feeling in his abdomen. "_Just need a cup of coffee..."_

"Yeah... I better do that. I'm really sorry." And with that, Nikki quickly left the kitchen, not waiting for Kaiba to answer.

As she later tiptoed down to the kitchen to get some food, she was relieved to find Mokuba eating his dinner. "Hi!" she called to him.

Nikki's voice startled Mokuba causing him to drop the food he was chewing, but a smile soon spread across his face. "Hi there! Want something to eat?"

"Yeah, I'm starving." She slumped down in a chair beside him and started to fill a plate.

"Uhm Nikki.. Do you know what's wrong with Seto? He seemed very absent…and complained about being…sore?"

Nikki instantly turned red as a tomato. "Ehh.. well... I kinda... jumped him" she grinned sheepishly.

Mokuba dropped another mouthful food. "Jumped him?"

"Yeah, I thought he was you, and I wanted to get back at you for yesterday…but obviously I tackled the wrong person."

To her surprise Mokuba started laughing. "Hahaha! I'd love to – hahah – to have s-haha seen his face hahaha! Priceless!"

Mokuba didn't stop teasing her about it for the rest of the evening. She was relieved when she finally lay in her bed. This had been a very exhausting day.

Next day aka. Tournament day.

Nikki woke up to the monotonous sound of rain tapping on her window. She sighed and got up.

"_Today's the big day."_ she thought as she looked through her closet. After a few minutes of search she found a pair of plain black jeans, a red blouse and a black jacket.

As she "admired" herself in the mirror someone knocked at the door and as usual she nearly got a heart attack. "Come in!"

Just as her heart had started retuning to its normal rhythm, Kaiba stepped in and her heart was again trying to win the gold in speedway.

"Morning." She finally remembered how to use her voice.

Kaiba didn't answer, instead he just walked straight up to her, handing her a little package. Getting excited, Nikki quickly opened the little box and pulled out a pair of fingerless, black gloves. She stared questionably at Kaiba, but he only watched her with his standard smirk. Looking closer she realized that the box wasn't empty yet.

As she glanced into the box again, she felt a mixture of confusion and anger. "_What. The. Fuck?"_

"What is this?" She asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Make-up." he answered. For a while both of them just stood glaring at each other. Then Kaiba left out an exaggerated sigh. "You're still blue."

Nikki was sure she looked like one big question mark.

"Even though the swelling on your eye is gone, it still as a very interesting color, and I'm sure you don't want to answer any awkward questions anymore than I do. The gloves, as you may have guessed, go on your hands." His smirk grew wider.

"_Come on. I know you're dying to say it. SAY IT!"_ Nikki thought as she waited for the inevitable.

"Besides, it wouldn't hurt you to look a little nice."

"_He shoots and he SCORES!"_she thought as she gave him her most evil stare. Without another word Kaiba turned around and left the room, but not before Nikki caught a glimpse of his highly amused face. "_Damn him!"_

She did like the gloves though.

Half an hour later Nikki joined Mokuba for breakfast. He didn't comment on the make-up. Lucky him...

At 11:45, they were all seated in the limousine and on their way to Kaiba Land. Nikki had decided to ignore Kaiba and simply stared out the window.

It was hard to grasp everything that had happened in the past two weeks. In those two weeks Nikki had done her best not to worry about the past or the future, but as people and buildings were passing by, she became lost in her thoughts. She didn't know how long she'd been staring out the window, but suddenly she felt something nudge her arm. "...kki? Nikki? NIKKI!" Mokuba practically yelled.

"Wha.." she started to say, when she realized that they where no longer driving.

"We've arrived." Mokuba said slowly as if talking to a child.

Nikki just nodded and followed the two of them as they entered Kaiba Land, from some kind of backdoor. Too many journalists at the front, Mokuba had explained her.

As they entered the arena, Nikki felt like she was going to suffocate. All her senses was being pushed to the extreme. The people, the noises, the smells – it was almost too much to take.

"_Great... now everybody is staring.."_ she thought with rising panic and inched closer to Mokuba, who just as his brother simply ignored them.

They parted at a staircase, Kaiba entering the duel-area and Nikki and Mokuba continuing up the stairs. Finally they reached something that looked like a mix between a commentator box and a technician room. As the door closed behind them, Nikki let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and slumped down into a chair. Mokuba started fiddling with various buttons and keys, and suddenly the arena's light changed; going dark everywhere except from a single spotlight pointed on Kaiba.

Nikki couldn't help admiring his courage. "Welcome," Kaiba's voice boomed through the speakers, "Welcome to the annual Duel-Monsters amateur tournament! This year's prices will be 100 000 yen to the winner, 50 000 yen to second place and 25 000 to the third place. The boards will show whom and where you will duel. The semi-finals and final will take place here. The duels will begin in 15 minutes. Any kind of cheating will not be tolerated."

Nikki could feel a shiver run down her spine at the last sentence and she was sure she wasn't the only one.

And then the duels began.

Nikki and Mokuba stayed in the technician room while Kaiba occasionally went to different duels for this and that reason. Nikki quickly spotted Tea on one of the many surveillance cameras and followed her dueling with interest. She was talented, no doubt, and had a lot of technical experience from watching others duel, but she still needed a lot of practical training.

Hours went by without Nikki noticing, this had to be one of the most exciting things she'd ever been to. As Kaiba's voice once more echoed through the arena, Nikki saw that the clock showed 3 pm. She returned her attention to Kaiba who was announcing who had made it to the semi-final, which would begin at 3.30. Shortly after he entered the room and Mokuba hurried to him.

Nikki could hear them argue about something, but she tried her best not to listen. After a few minutes Mokuba called her name with a triumphant smile on his face. "Come on Nikki! There are some friends I'd like you to meet!"

Even though she was hesitant to be around so many people, she couldn't do anything other than oblige the boy, not when he was looking at her with that smile. So Nikki just got up and followed, casting a short glance at Kaiba's very annoyed face. She got a slight idea whom she was about to meet.

And true enough Mokuba let her towards a group of people chatting happily with one another. "Hey guys!" Mokuba yelled enthusiastically when they reached them. "There's someone I'd like you to meet!"

He instantly got everybody's attention and Nikki felt her cheeks turn red under their stares. Tea saw her discomfort and went to stand by her side and continued the presentation. "Guys, this is Nikki! She's staying at Kaiba as..." she looked at Mokuba for help.

"As a researcher." He said "She hasn't found anywhere to stay yet and I persuaded Seto to let her stay."

Tea nodded "Right. Nikki, this is Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke, Bakura and Serenity." she pointed to them as she said their names.

She hadn't really needed to, as Nikki already knew a whole bunch of things about these guys. However, she wasn't going to tell them that. "_Quite a first-hand impression that would make."_ She thought dryly.

"Is she the friend you needed to help out?" Yugi asked, wondering how Tea knew the girl.

"Yeah, she is..." Tea admitted. Since Mokuba hadn't mentioned anything about what happened to Nikki, she figured he didn't want to let the guys know.

Nikki saw her struggling to come up with an explanation and interrupted, "We bumped into each other one day and started to talk, and when I told her I didn't know the city she offered to show me around. I asked her not to bring anyone, cause I'm kinda shy..." She looked down and hoped they fell for the shy-girl-story.

Apparently they did, because they now started questioning her about her living with Kaiba. She tried to dismiss it as best as she could. Luckily for her the semi-final was about to start…

It was interesting watching the semi-finals together with the guys and even though neither Tea nor Tristan had made it this far, the spirit was high. When a short break began Nikki excused herself, and went to the bathroom.

As she washed her hands, she felt a presence behind her and the blood in her veins froze. "_No this can't be! Please no…it can't be! Can't be!"_ Nikki slowly lifted her head and glanced at the face behind her. If she had never seen that face again she would have been happy.

The man behind her was tall and sickly thin with blond hair and washed-out blue eyes. A cruel smile twisted his thin lips as he backhanded her and sent her flying to the floor. "You little bitch! You really thought you could escape me, didn't you?!" he snarled, and slowly started to approach her.

Nikki couldn't move. Panic had shut down any rational thought and she could only stare at the man with big eyes. He gripped her hair and shook her violently. "You are going to pay for what you did to us, the building and my DOG!"

With a surprising strength for such a thin and frail looking man, he lifted her by her neck with his left hand and prepared his right to a crushing blow. Nikki closed her eyes and waited for the pain. However, it never came. She slowly opened her eyes and felt her heart swell at the sight.

Kaiba had seen a strange man walk into the women's bathroom right after Nikki had entered and he decided to follow. The sight that met him almost took him by surprise, but he instantly grabbed the man's arm and twisted it before he could strike.

"Get your hands off me! You have no right to interfere!" the man hissed at Kaiba through his clenched teeth.

"Let go of the girl." Kaiba said calmly and gave the arm a sharp yank. The man groaned with pain and let Nikki drop to the floor.

She quickly scrambled to her feet and practically ran to Kaiba, almost hiding behind him. "Is this your stepfather?" he asked without taking his eyes off the man.

The man suddenly let out a scary rusty laughter. He kept on laughing even though Kaiba yanked his arm to the point where Nikki thought (hoped) it would break. Finally he stopped, but still kept a cold smirk on his face. "My dear Mr. Kaiba. What lies has she been telling you? That she ran from an evil stepfather?" he asked mockingly.

Kaiba didn't answer. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm principal Sanders, head of the Crystal orphanage, which until recently was the home of your _precious_ Nicole."

Kaiba loosened his grip and Sanders used the opportunity to get free. He massaged his sore arm and shoulder as he continued, now with a look of pure hatred in his eyes. "I'm sure Nicole has told you all about how she stole my money, burned down my office and with it an entire building AND the fact that she killed my dog!"

The glare that Kaiba gave Nikki made her wish the earth would swallow her whole.

"The scars on her back and the man you sent after her should fully outweigh any damages she has done. Get out of my sight before I call the police." He told Sanders in a voice that could cut through diamonds.

Even Sanders stepped back as he saw the deadly glare in the younger man's face. He turned his attention to Nikki and she shrank, "You've seen her back? My, my Nicole, I didn't know you were that easy to get in bed. So you are a slut after all, who'd guessed?" and with these words he walked out the bathroom.

"Kaiba, I can expla..." She started, but was cut off by the disgusted look in his eyes.

Without a word or another look he grabbed her arm and led her out the bathroom and out the building towards the limousine. "Wait in the limo! And trust me; if you run, you will regret it dearly." The unsaid threat in his words froze her heart and she got in the limo.

As she saw him walk away her now frozen heart shattered into a thousand pieces that dug into her chest and she felt like vomiting from the sudden physical pain. She'd lost his trust, and possibly more, forever.

A tear ran down her cheek and for the first time in many years, Nikki started to cry.

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**Uhh now things starts to get interesting! ;)**

**Hopefully you liked it (you are welcome to tell me so or otherwise in a review).**

**I'll really try to post the next chapter sooner...**


	11. Chapter 11 The Truth

**Hello! Again I'm sorry for the long wait :/ I promise you; this is going to be an interesting chapter! I'm actually a little nervous, because I think that the story practically stands or falls on this chapter, so I really hope you like it :D**

**Before it starts I'd like to thank Nadia Blackrose for her "second opinion" and of course my beta DaAmazingMeepers.**

**Also a great Thank-you to all who have reviewed, favourited, alerted or just read the story. **

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**The Truth**

Kaiba was met by the geek patrol as he re-entered the building. "Where's Nikki?" a fuming mutt yelled and grabbed his collar.

Kaiba gave him a deadly stare and yanked free of his grip. "That is none of your concern, Wheeler! And if you don't get out of my way I'll call security."

Something in Kaiba's voice made Yugi put a hand on Joey's arm. "Let's go Joey."

"But.." Joey started.

However, he was interrupted by Tea. "Let's GO!" she hissed through her teeth, also sensing that something was wrong.

When Joey didn't react she grabbed his arm and in unison she and Yugi practically dragged him away. Kaiba returned to the arena just in time to announce the two finalists. When the duel started he made his way to the technician box. Mokuba had seen his brother disappear down the passage to the toilets following a tall man he'd never seen before. After 15 minutes Yugi and his friends also followed. He started to get worried, what was going on? And where was Nikki?

When 20 minutes had passed the guys came in and disappeared in the crowd. Shortly after, Kaiba followed and made his way to the arena to start the finals. He still couldn't see Nikki...

As Kaiba entered the box he was met by a worried Mokuba. Without a word he took the seat next to him and tried to focus on the duel. "Seto?" Mokuba began hesitantly, "Where's Nikki?"

Kaiba turned his attention to his brother, thinking about his options. In the end he decided it was best to tell the truth. It would be painful, but it was nevertheless necessary. "In the limo." He started, not exactly sure how to continue.

Mokuba looked at his brother in confusion. "Why?"

Kaiba sighed and told him the story, his voice turning more and more bitter for each sentence. Mokuba's eyes widened in disbelief. "_This can't be true!"_ he thought, but then stopped himself. Hadn't he always had a feeling that she was holding something back? That something wasn't as it seemed? Suddenly the pieces fell into place; the man, her lack of reaction towards the fact that he and Seto were from an orphanage, her pained expressions, her reluctance to speak of her past. "But why is she in the limo?" he suddenly asked, "_Didn't the headmaster leave_?"

"I'll deal with her later." was his brother's only reply.

Mokuba didn't like the way he said the word _deal_. "What do you mean?" he demanded, hoping that Seto wouldn't confirm his suspicion.

"She lied to me – to us, Mokuba. Don't you see? She misused our trust." He hissed and looked away from Mokuba.

"Idiot." was Mokuba's only answer.

Kaiba stared at his brother in disbelief. Never before had he called him an idiot. "What did you say?" he finally managed to ask.

"You heard me, brother. I love you, but right now you're behaving like an idiot! Did it ever occur to you that she might have a reason not to tell the truth? Did you even ask for her side of the story?" Mokuba snapped.

For a moment Kaiba sat baffled by his brother's words. He did intent to question her later when the tournament was finished, but he hadn't really thought about what he would find out. However, nothing she could say would change the fact that she lied to him. Mokuba waited for an answer, but when none came he decided to ignore him and turned his attention to the duel which seemed to be coming to an end. "Idiot" he mumbled under his breath.

5 minutes later the duel was finished and Kaiba went to the arena to announce the winner and hand over the prize money. When people started to leave the building Kaiba and Mokuba made their way to the exit in silence. Nikki had been staring into the air ever since Kaiba had left her.

She'd finally stopped crying, but hadn't bothered to wipe away the marks on her cheeks from the tears or her now ruined make-up. She'd decided to tell Kaiba the truth. Not that she thought he wouldn't demand it anyway, but she would tell him everything. The sound of a car door being opened snapped her out of her thoughts, but she didn't look up.

Mokuba was quite shocked when he saw Nikki. She was a mess. Her short hair stood out in all directions, her make-up was smeared and her eyes swollen and red from crying. "_Wait crying? She never cries..."_ he thought, as he stared at the evidence that obviously refuted this claim.

He looked at his brother, who just ignored the girl. Demonstratively he went to sit next to Nikki and placed a hand on her shoulder. She gave him a small glance, but then returned her attention to her hands in her lap. The trip back to the mansion went without a word being said. Mokuba ignored Kaiba, Kaiba ignored Nikki and Nikki didn't dare to acknowledge either of the brothers' presence. When they reached the mansion Kaiba waited for Nikki to get out of the limo, before he firmly grabbed her arm and started leading her to his office. As he saw Mokuba following he tried to signalize that he should stay away, but his brother simply kept ignoring him. Nikki felt her knees starting to give away, but Kaiba's grip prevented her from falling. Suddenly she found herself outside Kaiba's office. Kaiba led her through the door and placed her in the chair across his desk. He seated himself in his own chair as Mokuba took a stand beside Nikki. Finally Nikki dared to look the older brother in the eyes, but she was met by nothing but cold. She quickly looked down and tried to find her voice.

Kaiba got tired of waited and snapped at her, "Explain yourself!"

Nikki jumped from his sudden outburst and looked up. She tried to hold his gaze, but had to settle by staring on his chest. Her resolve about telling Kaiba everything, without having him to drag it out of her, had vanished in thin air. Kaiba sighed, it was clear the girl wouldn't talk on her own accord. "_Let's start with something simple"_ he thought sarcastically. "What's your real name?" he asked, daring her to look him in the eyes.

Nikki's hands started fidgeting, "Nicole Anderson" she answered with a shaking voice.

"Age?"

"17".

"_Well, that explains why she couldn't legally escape"_Mokuba thought as he followed the interrogation. He kept his position behind Nikki.

"Care to elaborate anything?" Kaiba asked mockingly.

Nikki took a deep breath and tried to get a hold of her voice. She opened her mouth to explain, but not a sound came out. She tried again and this time she succeeded in producing an audible sound. "My mum became pregnant with me when she was 16 and I've never known my father..." Nikki talked slowly and quietly to prevent her voice from shaking. "For some reason the authorities never questioned her ability to take care of me, until she died from an overdose when I was 4..."

She paused when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Silently she thanked Mokuba. "Since I had no family I was sent to an orphanage – more precisely the Crystal Orphanage led by Dean Sanders." Even under the current circumstances her voice began to shake with fear and anger by the mere thought of the man. "Actually it wasn't that bad in the beginning. The staff and Sanders may have been harsh, but it was bearable. But when I turned 13 it changed."

Kaiba suddenly realized that Nikki's gaze no longer lingered at his chest; in fact it was fixated at his face... but the look in her eyes made it clear that she no longer saw him.

"One night Sanders called me to his office." she continued as if in a trance. "It was nothing unusual in the beginning, but then he asked me to... to strip... I refused, but then he began to hit me and just kept hitting and hitting. There was nothing I could do and in the end... That was the night he put his mark on me. He said I should never forget who owned me." Unconsciously, her hand went to the back on her neck.

Mokuba was utterly mortified, but he had to ask the question since his brother remained silent. "Did he ever... you know?" he wasn't sure how to say it, but Nikki caught the meaning of his words.

She hid her face in her hands, "No, he only demanded that I'd strip for him. It went on like this for years. Once in a while I tried to refuse, but then he just started to beat me. 3 months ago, he was drunk and tried to feel me up, and when I kept fighting even though he hit me, he made his dog attack me instead." Tears began to run down Nikki's cheeks as she relived the moments where she was sure she'd die, but she didn't care.

"After that, he left me and I somehow managed to get to my room. I knew I couldn't stay, but I wanted to get back at him, for what he'd done. So I hacked his computer. I had done it before as an experiment, but when I found nothing interesting I never tried again. I don't really know what I was planning to do, but then I found something..." for the first time since she began her story, she looked Kaiba straight in the eyes, "He has plans to hack your system, steal your money and ruin your firm."

Kaiba stared at her for a moment incredulous, "You know that's impossible." He said, no emotion in his voice.

Nikki shook her head, "They somehow found a way by bit by bit to infiltrate your system... trying to create a backdoor somehow, but the process takes about 4 months... they were about 2 months ahead, but I think the development of the virus must have taken much longer... I melted down his system and destroyed everything...after that I knew I had to get away immediately so I broke into his office and stole some money, then I drenched the whole place in vodka, scotch and anything else flammable, but when I was about to lit it his dog came into the office, thinking I was him... It attacked me again and I jumped behind the desk and... and when I looked in one of the drawers for something to defend myself with I found a gun and shot it... and lit the place... for about 2 months I wandered around until he found me.. and then you saved me"

"You said 'they', and 'they somehow'." Kaiba asked, trying to ignore any kind of feelings. "What do you mean by that? And can you even prove any of it?"

Her gaze was again absent and glasslike and she rocked slightly back and forth in the chair, but nevertheless she answered. "Sanders isn't smart enough to plan something like that. There has to be a leader. I-I-I didn't think of taking a copy, but there might be traces left in your system."

For the first time since the limo Mokuba and Kaiba looked in each other in the eyes. Maybe for the first time in his life, Kaiba didn't know what to say or do. She had lived through horrors, but nevertheless she'd lied to him. He was torn in two; one part wanted to forgive her and embrace her, protect her from the world and its cruelty, and make sure that her face would never show this vulnerability and despair. But the other part, and he didn't know how strong that part was, wanted to kick her out and never see her again. "Why didn't you tell the truth from the beginning?" he simply asked. The question earned him an evil glare from Mokuba.

Nikki snapped out of her trance. "I-I don't know. I didn't know you or have any reason to trust you, and I feared you might have thought I was involved in the virus and... and... and I just didn't want you to know." as she spoke she felt herself trying to shrink deeper into the chair.

Nikki bent down her head, feeling like wounded prey, just waiting for the lethal blow. Never before had she felt this vulnerable, this exposed. Never had she deliberately gazed away from anyone out of fright for what the person might do to her. Never before had she trusted anyone as she trusted him. Despite everything; his anger, his threats, his hate, she trusted him fully. And at that moment she felt something she'd never felt before – no, something she'd never allowed herself to feel before – love. But however new and amazing this feeling was, she knew it didn't matter. She could never have him anyway – not now, not ever.

"Mokuba, please take Nikki back to her room." Kaiba suddenly said, interrupting Nikki's depressing thoughts. Without a word Nikki and Mokuba got up, and Mokuba followed Nikki to the door. As she left the office and started towards her room, Mokuba looked over his shoulder at his brother. "You know Seto, I don't think she'd ever cried before tonight... think about it." And with these words he left the room.

As Mokuba entered Nikki's room, he was met by darkness, but as soon as his eyes had adjusted themselves to the lack of light he saw the trembling figure on the bed. After debating with himself for a few seconds he walked to the bed and sat down beside Nikki. He stayed until he was sure she had fallen asleep.

Kaiba stayed in his office for hours doing nothing but stare into the air. He didn't know what to think or feel. On one hand there was the problem with the hackers or whatever they were and if they even existed. "_That should be easy enough to find out."_ he thought, but kept staring at nothing, because on the other hand there was Nikki. He couldn't figure out what he felt towards the girl, but he started to realize that it was the before-mentioned "first" part that was strongest. This, though, didn't change the fact that there still was another part...

And what did Mokuba mean by 'never cried'? For Kaiba crying meant weakness. Had he ever considered the girl weak? No.

He thought about her past; she'd had to make herself hard. A bit like him... a lot like him...

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**Well? Did you like it? Please let me know, because as I said in the beginning I'm really unsure about this chapter. I mean I think it's good, but what do you think?**


	12. Chapter 12 Secrets and Addictions

**Argh! I did it again! I'm sorry for letting you guys wait this long for a new chapter... pleeeeaaaaaaaase forgive me? **

**This chapter wasn't really meant to be, so you all have DaAmazingMeepers and her little "reminder" to thank for this :3 **

**On with the story!**

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**Secrets and Addictions**

Nikki stayed in her room all Sunday. Mokuba brought her food and stayed with her for a couple of hours, but neither said a word. Mokuba just didn't know what to say and Nikki had sunk into what seemed to be a permanent state of misery.

When Mokuba had left, her mind started to wander. She knew that her resolution to tell Kaiba everything had went right out the window, but she was too embarrassed to tell the brothers the rest, "_They won't understand anyway..."_ she thought as she stared out the window, watching the sun set, "_Besides... I doubt he wants to talk to me."_

Nikki felt tears rise in her eyes again and bit her tongue, "_NO! I'm finished crying... it's no good anyway." _She scolded herself as the room went darker and darker; she wouldn't allow herself to cry – crying meant weakness and weakness meant defeat. She looked at the clock, which showed 8.43 pm, and went to bed.

Kaiba had spent the entire day finding every bit of information about Dean Sanders... which wasn't much; he seemed to be an ordinary law obedient man with no record at all, not even a speeding ticket. He didn't have any family or friends of interest and the only time he'd been mentioned in the news was when the orphanage burned. Apparently the fire had been so extensive that the children had had to be moved to other orphanages.

Kaiba couldn't help the cold smirk on his lips at the last comment. Unfortunately the thought immediately brought Nikki back into his mind and he sighed in frustration.

He put a hand to his head as he leaned back into his chair and thought; he had to make up his mind about the girl... and it had to be soon, otherwise the whirling thoughts about this particular pixie would never leave him... or at least that was what he thought.

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Nikki woke with a start. She couldn't take this anymore – she had to.

Slowly she got up and started walking towards the staircase that led to the kitchen. She felt angry about herself – hated herself for being so weak.

As she opened the door to the kitchen she noticed that her hands were shaking violently, she ignored it.

Nikki went through all the cupboards and almost screamed in frustration when she didn't find what she needed. Then she remembered the little cabinet in the main hall. Quickly she closed the cupboards and left the kitchen.

The cabinet was easily found and to Nikki's great relief it was unlocked.

She slowly opened it and finally found was she'd been looking for. Without any hesitations she reached for the bottle with the golden liquor and returned to the kitchen, not even bothering to notice that she was practically stealing a bottle of 23 year old scotch worth probably around 15,000 yen.

By the time she'd managed to find the cupboard with glass her hands were shaken so violently that she dropped the glass she'd just taken – it shattered to pieces as it hit the hard floor, but Nikki didn't care, she just grabbed another one and went to sit at the table, carefully avoided the fragments of glass.

Kaiba suddenly heard something from below. He looked at the clock, "_1 am?!"_

He frowned, he hadn't noticed the time, but suddenly a wave of tiredness washed over him and he decided to go to bed. He started to shut down his computers and began his way to the ground floor to find the source of the mysterious noise.

Nikki felt her body relax as the alcohol hit her tongue. She carefully savoured the burning sensation as the liquor ran down her throat. Slowly she fell into happy oblivion as the glass magically kept refilling itself and her mind became more and more foggy.

Kaiba looked around in the main hall, but didn't notice the open cabinet. What he did notice though, was the light coming from the kitchen.

What he'd expected to find he didn't know, but what he did find actually shocked him.

Nikki was still sitting in the chair though her upper body was slightly swaying back and forth; she'd discarded the glass and was drinking straight from the now half-empty bottle.

Slowly she lifted her head to look at Kaiba with glazed eyes, then, without looking away, she raised the bottle to her lips and took a huge sip.

Kaiba stared almost mesmerized at the small drop of golden liquor that trickled down her chin. Furiously he shook his head to snap himself out of it, "What the hell are you doing?!" he asked in a low, but deadly tone.

"Relaxing" Nikki just answered before she drank again, "Wanna join?" she asked and raised the bottle towards him. In two long strides Kaiba was right in front of her. Without another word he grabbed the bottle and emptied the contents in the sink.

It took a moment for Nikki's highly intoxicated mind to comprehend what Kaiba had done, but then a jolt of horror struck her, "What the fuck did you do that for you big idiot!?" she yelled at him as she rose from the chair. She lost her balance almost immediately, but managed to grab onto the table before she fell on her butt.

Using the table as support she slowly made her way towards Kaiba until she was right in front of him. Kaiba didn't move when she looked at him furiously and poked his chest; "I needed that!" she screamed and pointed towards the sink and the empty bottle.

Kaiba slapped her hand away and looked down at her with an expressionless face, "You don't need that!" he hissed in a low voice, "What you "need" is to keep your voice down so you don't wake Mokuba and to keep your hands off MY booze!"

Nikki stared at him dumbfounded for a moment before his words sank in, "_His booze?"_ She recalled where she'd found the scotch. She tried to get her brain to function, but clouded by the alcohol, the only thing she could think about was Kaiba's lips as they began to move again. Apparently he was talking to her again?

"... the hell to you think you are?!" Kaiba began, but stopped as he saw the empty stare in her eyes, "_Dammit! How much did she drink?!" _He recalled the half-empty bottle and gritted his teeth in frustration.

Suddenly the girl let go off the table and stood swaying for a moment before she lost her balance.

Unprepared as he was Kaiba didn't have time to brace himself and the sudden impact knocked him over. Feeling kinda déjà-vu-ish he yet again found himself under this extremely aggravating girl.

He started to reach out to push her off him but was stopped by two hands sliding up his chest. Slowly the hand reached his face and he felt the spinning in his stomach increase as the girl wriggled up his body until her face was right in front of his.

"_I must be dreaming" _Nikki thought as she stared into the blue eyes of the CEO. Gently she let her left hand caress his face before she bent down and softly pressed her lips to his.

Kaiba was startled as he felt Nikki's tantalizing lips on his. For once in his life he felt completely paralyzed as he stared into the two dark sapphires that looked down on him.

Getting no reaction from Kaiba Nikki pressed her lips to his again and playfully let her tongue slide across his lips, daring him to respond.

Kaiba shuddered as he felt her tongue trace his lips; the smell and the taste of alcohol caught him of guard and he gasped. Nikki immediately used the opportunity to slide her tongue in his mouth, stilling trying to provoke a reaction.

Kaiba was lost. Instantly he forgot the circumstances for their position and smoothly shoved his tongue into her. Not wanting to be the submissive one he immediately fought her for control which she happily granted him.

Nikki's hands soon moved from his cheeks to his hair where she entangled her fingers in the silky locks. She moaned in his mouth as Kaiba's hands reach around her back and pressed their bodies together.

They broke their kiss only to gasp for air. Nikki quickly took advantage of this and began planting small kisses along his jaw. She continued down his neck where she began to nip at his skin, leaving him gasping for air. At the crook of his neck Nikki planted a particularly hard bite, and it was that which suddenly snapped Kaiba out of it.

Reality hit him hard as he pushed the drunken girl off him and got up.

Nikki remained on the floor staring at him in frustration and disbelief, her swollen lips pouting slightly as she gave him an evil glare.

Kaiba's eyes locked with Nikki's for a second before he sighed and looked away. He quickly bent down and scooped her up in his arms and began his way to her room.

Nikki was speechless. She kept shifting between scowling at Kaiba and being baffled. Her still fogged mind didn't recognize the room until Kaiba dropped her on her bed, and before Nikki could say anything he turned around and walked to the door.

Nikki stumbled to her feet and was just about to catch him, when she felt something in her throat. Something she wasn't quite unfamiliar with. So instead of chasing Kaiba she raced for the bathroom and was just in time to vomit down the toilet.

After she finished she wiped her mouth and crawled towards the bed, having lost any urge for adventure she might had had. The moment her head touched the pillow her mind shut down completely and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Kaiba looked down at the sleeping girl and thought about the previous night. Damn, he hated drunk people; they were loud, unpredictable and irrational, and put together in that girl, these qualities made a very bad cocktail.

He hadn't gotten much sleep due to the late hours and of course the rather unexpected kiss...

He'd been lying wide awake for an hour or so, wondering about her motives, both for the kiss and for the drinking.

The kiss he'd dismissed very much like last time: A natural side-effect from the alcohol, Kaiba just being the closest "victim". Nothing more. His own feelings on this matter, of course, were deeply buried inside.

He frowned as he thought about the alcohol. It didn't take a genius to figure out why she'd done it or that this wasn't her first time. However much he hated himself for it, he couldn't help to feel a little more forgiving towards the girl, despite of her lies. He maybe even understood why she'd done it... maybe..

Having had enough of his own musings, he left the glass of water on her nightstand and went to wake Mokuba.

As the two of them walked by Nikki's door Mokuba halted. He looked at his brother and was about to say something, when Kaiba beat him to it, "It's only 6 o'clock. It would be better if you let her sleep. I'll make sure she gets something to eat."

Mokuba smiled, happy that his brother seemed to forgive Nikki – at least a little. Neither said a word as they continued their way towards the kitchen.

As they ate their breakfast in silence Mokuba spotted something weird, "Seto, why is there an empty bottle of... whisky? By the sink?"

Kaiba could have kicked himself for his thoughtlessness, he'd completely forgotten everything about that fucking bottle, "I couldn't sleep last night and I needed something to make me relax."

"_What?!" _Mokuba thought, "_Seto hardly ever uses alcohol to help him relax?"_

He tried to hide his worry and instead gave his brother a teasing smile, "But a whole bottle brother?"

Kaiba shrugged, "It tasted so vile that I took one sip and poured the rest of it in the sink."

Except for the obligatory "good-byes" these were the last words exchanged between the brothers that morning.

Nikki woke to one of her worst headaches ever. As she tried to sit up she had to groan in agony and let herself slump back into her pillow. She tried to move her head but that only resulted in increasing the pain. Settling with moving only her eyes she discovered the water on the nightstand.

She gritted her teeth as she tried to sit up again. This time she at least succeeded and slowly reached for the water. Hungrily she gulped down the contents of the glass, not even sparing a single thought on its provider. The water turned the piercing pain into a dull thumping ache and she was able to think.

She didn't remember much from the previous night. Heck, she didn't even know how she ended in her room. The last clear memory she had was that she'd broken a glass; the rest was rather... blurry, though she recalled something about Kaiba. She'd been angry at him for some reason? Which meant he must have shown up at some point in her moment of weakness, "_SHIT!"_

She let herself fall back into her pillow once more and feel asleep.

Silently Kaiba entered the room, the clock showed 11 am and now, he thought, it was time for some answers. Again.

He walked to the bed and carefully nudged the girl awake, "_at least"_ he noticed, "_She has drunk the water..."_

Nikki slowly got out of her blissful and painless unconscious state and found herself staring into two beautiful ice-blue orbs. She blinked twice as her headache returned but kept staring at the owner of the eyes.

"Get yourself ready and come to my office" he just said, "you need to give me some answers" and with that he turned around and walked towards the door where he stopped. Hand on doorknob he turned his head and looked back at the half-awakened girl, "You might want to brush your teeth... I think you threw up last night." And then he was gone.

It took Nikki 5 full minutes to comprehend his words, but as soon as realization struck, so did a nasty taste in her mouth; she scrambled out of the bed to the bathroom where she ferociously scrubbed her teeth and tongue.

When she returned to the room she noticed that the empty glass had been replaced with a full and two white pills lay beside it. She couldn't help feeling a small flicker of gratitude towards Kaiba.

Kaiba looked up as the door to his office slowly opened. Nikki carefully closed the door behind her and staggered towards Kaiba's desk. Her balance was still ruined from yesterday's heavy drinking, and she was positive she looked like shit. Gratefully she let herself fall into the chair across Kaiba.

Minutes went by but neither said a word, Nikki started to get annoyed; she was absolutely mortified about the previous night and she suffered from a horrible hang-over which she'd rather deal with in bed.

"I take it that we met last night?" she said, having decided to break the silence.

Kaiba smirked, "And I take it you don't remember much about what happened?" he said as he tried to convince himself that the strange feeling in his stomach was due to relief.

His face suddenly turned serious, "and I guess that this isn't the first time it has happened? I'd like an explanation... now."

Nikki gulped suddenly feeling nauseated, "I think I was 14 when it started... During one of the... the..." she struggled to find the right word, "... episodes he got so drunk he fell asleep. It happened from time to time and normally I just left, but for some reason I stole the bottle of vodka he'd been drinking from and... Well, it helped me relax." She shrugged, "So I continued stealing the bottles if he passed out – he never noticed... I guess he just thought he'd put it back or thrown it away..."

During her speech Nikki had been looking at her hands; for some reason it felt a little bit easier to talk to Kaiba about her past... just a little.

She glanced at his face through her lowered lashes; his chin resting on his hands, his face showing no emotions.

Kaiba believed her. It sounded like a plausible explanation and it wasn't unusual for people in her "situation" to find some sort of escape – one way or another.

"What do you remember from last night?" he had to know.

Nikki looked down again, this time from pure embarrassment, "Well, the last thing I remember clearly is that I broke a glass, but I think I was... angry? At you for some reason..." she looked at Kaiba questioningly.

"I emptied the bottle in the sink" was his only reply, which was true. Partially.

"Oh... okay..." Nikki hesitated, "well... I guess I'll go pack my things and get out of your house..."

"No" Kaiba broke in before she could get up.

Nikki blinked, "No?"

"You're forgetting something; according to you someone is trying to steal my money and I want to find out whom." He held her gaze for a moment, "and since you know what the virus looks like I need you to go through my system. Maybe we can trace it back to the owner." Kaiba hesitated, unsure how to continue, "Besides Mokuba likes you and there are people out there who want to kill you."

Nikki could feel her heart swell at the last sentence. He had to care at least a little about her if he would let her stay in his mansion for protection. "Thank you" She said with all the gratitude she could muster.

Kaiba's eyes softened just a bit, "You can go back to your room. We will start the work tomorrow."

As Nikki began to get up he spoke again, "One more thing; stay out of my booze. If this is a serious addiction I will get you help, but I will not tolerate another episode like last night. Is that clear?"

Nikki nodded, "It won't happen again a-and... and I can handle it."

Kaiba somehow doubted this, but he kept quiet.

She quickly turned around and left the office. As she lay in her bed 5 minutes later she thought about what had just happened.

"I wonder what happened last night?" she asked aloud, and with that question lingering in her mind she fell asleep.

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**I hope you all like it. This chapter was basically meant to show that Nikki isn't completely unaffected of what happened to her at the orphanage and therefor have found her own way to cope with it. **

**And I have good news! A date for the next chapter! yes you head right - next chapter will be uploaded 21th GTM + 1! dam dam dam daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam.**

***please review* **


	13. Chapter 13 Dean Sanders

**Hello! As promised the next chapter! This is another chapter that wasn't meant to be, but... well, I think it's rather good actually ;) ENJOY! **

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**Dean Sanders**

Dean Sanders hesitated. He stood outside an office in one of the most prestigious and expensive buildings in Domino City, well, except from Kaiba Corp's.

Sanders looked at the door as if it held his doom, "_Might as well"_ he thought bitterly before taking a deep breath and knocking on the door.

"Come in" a monotonous voice from behind the door said. Another deep breath and Sanders entered.

He'd been here multiple times before, but still didn't feel anymore relax. At least when they had met at the orphanage they were on his home ground, but thanks to that bitch it was currently uninhabitable, "_Fucking slut!"_

The room was dark – it always was. In the beginning Sanders had wondered how the man was able to see anything properly; all the curtains were drawn and the only light came from a small lamp in the middle of the room – it was impossible to see more than the man's hands.

Not that it mattered anyway; Sanders knew what he looked like and for facial expression the man didn't seem to own any.

A visible hand beckoned Sanders to the empty chair across the desk. "Saul will arrive shortly" he said in an almost robotic way. No emotions.

Neither said a word. Sander became more and more nervous. If he felt uncomfortable in front of his boss, it was nothing compared to the fear he felt for the Boss' fist man, Saul.

His boss might be an ice cold manipulating bastard, but he was an intellectual not a hunter.

Saul on the other hand... Speaking of the devil; the knock on the door almost made Sanders jump out of the chair. The Boss didn't move a muscle, "come in."

And in he came. Saul was average height, maybe a bit taller, lean but very muscular. His dark hair stood in sharp contrast to his blue eyes and he looked like he could be anything from 20 to 40 years old. If he'd had to guess Sanders would say 30.

Saul moved with the grace of a cat. Or more like that of a panther, ready to strike fast and merciless. Sanders had seen him in action and it wasn't pretty. His opponent never stood a chance.

As he let himself fall into the chair beside him, Sanders felt his body lean involuntarily away. Both men ignored him.

A member of the group was missing but apparently he wasn't invited since the Boss now began to speak... and he wasn't pleased, "Sanders, I'm very disappointed in you." He paused for a second, "No, in fact I'm not disappointed, I'm fucking pissed. If it isn't enough that some girl ruined many months work, you had to sent some rented gorilla after her to beat her up in one of Kaiba's own warehouses, and due to this she is now a houseguest of the great Seto Kaiba and has probably told him everything about my plan." His voice hadn't been raised or changed its tone through the whole speech, but Sanders slowly felt himself shrink back into the chair.

"And" he continued, "You did this without telling me. What are you? A fucking imbecile?" He didn't wait for answer and Sanders didn't feel the urge to give any. "All this I have to learn from Saul because, luckily, I ordered him to keep an eye on you."

Sanders remembered the episode all too well; when he'd left the bathroom at the tournament he'd been grabbed from behind by none other than Saul, who'd heard the most of what had happened in the bathroom. After that it had only been a matter of time before the Boss figured out the rest. "FUCK!" he thought for the 79th time. He'd hoped that he could have been able to deal with the "business" himself, but he'd failed miserably.

"I don't care what your sexual interests are" the Boss spoke again, "Hell, I don't even care if you've fucked every single child on that pathetic orphanage of yours, but what I do care about is the fact that you screwed up so badly that you jeopardized the whole plan. You're out. Saul will take you home."

The dismissal was impossible to ignore and Sanders didn't even bother to defend himself. It was over. His eyes darted to Saul as he slowly got up and gestured Sanders to do the same and follow him.

Sanders got up and without another look in the Boss' direction they left the room.

The drive towards Sanders' temporary residence felt like forever. At least to Sanders. He couldn't help feeling more anxious than usual in Saul's company, but he tried to write it off as nerves because of his "discharge".

When they reached Sanders' apartment Saul followed him up. Sanders didn't dare to say anything.

He unlocked the door and halted, turning his attention to Saul who was standing uncomfortably close. "T-t-thanks for the lift" Sanders stuttered while hoping the man would leave. Saul didn't move a muscle. Instead he said: "I'll need to come inside." And with these words he opened the door with one hand and pushed Sanders in with the other.

Once inside Sanders' alarm bells went off and he could feel he was on the verge of panic.

"C-c-can I-I-I get y-you some-something" he managed to ask, painfully aware of how much his voice was shaking. Saul nodded, "water, please."

As Sanders turned around to head for the kitchen, he felt a sharp pain on the side of his neck and then his world turned black.

* * *

He woke to the smell of gasoline and the sickening splashing of liquid hitting the floor.

He blinked a few times to clear his vision, but it was still slightly blurred.

His hands and feet were held together by strips and he felt cloth in his mouth and realised he was gagged, and, unfortunately, Sanders was lying on his back and was therefore painfully aware of what was going on.

Saul loomed over him with a gasoline can in his hands, making sure Sanders was thoroughly soaked. Sanders got, if possible, more terrified by the look on his face; Saul's eyes were perfectly calm and a small smile graced his lips.

Sanders began trashing around, but little did it help. Slowly Saul put the now empty gas container down and searched his pockets. Sanders had a pretty good idea of what he was looking for.

As Saul ignited the match his smile turned into a malicious grin. And then he dropped the match.

Sanders watched his doom fall in slow motion. Then it landed on his chest and within seconds his whole body was ablaze. For a short moment Sanders didn't feel any pain and he briefly wondered that maybe he was dreaming. This thought was abruptly disrupted when an excruciating pain ran through his body.

His eyes widened and his mouth gaped in a silent scream through his gag as his body was consumed by the flames.

Ten minutes later the whole apartment was on fire and a neighbour called the fire brigade. Two hours later the fire had been extinguished and the burnt remnants of Dean Sanders were found among the ashes.

* * *

Tuesday morning Kaiba read the following article in the paper:

_**Fire victim identified.**_

_Two days ago an apartment building on Wingstreet almost burned to the ground. The police was called to the scene when a fireman found the remnants of a severely burnt body._

_The body has now been identified as the 43-year-old Dean Sanders. Dean Sanders was mentioned in this paper a few months ago, when his orphanage, the Crystal Orphanage, burned – reason still unknown. The police confirm that they are treating the case as a homicide._

_Chief constable Robert Haste made a statement this morning:_

"_Yes, we are positive that Dean Sanders was murdered. The investigators found heavy traces of gasoline on the floor where the body was found and in the victim's clothes... No, we don't have any evidence that this fire and the fire at the orphanage are connected, but we are not leaving the possibility out. It will be thoroughly investigated."_

_Inside sources tell that the policeman who interviewed Dean Sanders in connection with the orphanage fire believed he was hiding something; this was never confirmed._

"_Well, that solves one problem"_ Kaiba thought sadistically as he put down the paper and took a sip of his coffee.

Nikki woke to the low creak of her door being opened and the feeling of being stared intensely at. She immediately knew who the perpetrator was, "'morning Mokuba" she said, her voice muffled from beneath the cover.

"How are you feeling today?" he asked now that she was awake anyway.

Nikki slowly opened her eyes, concentrating hard on Mokuba's question, "Feeling?..."

"Ehh well? You were sick last night. Seto told me not to bother you because you weren't feeling too well" he looked at her questioningly.

Nikki's brain suddenly clicked, "Oh yeah right. I had the most terrible headache ever so I just slept most of the day." She said.

"_Dang, I'm lying again. On the other hand... It doesn't seem like Kaiba has told him either?"_ she thought while smiling weirdly at Mokuba.

"Okay. Right. Wanna go have breakfast with me before I leave for school?"

As if on cue Nikki's stomach growled violently. "I take that as a yes!" he exclaimed as Nikki got out of bed.

When Nikki had eaten breakfast and said goodbye to Mokuba, she returned to her room unsure of what to do. She took a shower, dressed and went to sit on the bed staring straight at the door.

Minutes went by, but Nikki didn't move. When the clock showed 8.33 am and she'd been staring intensely at the door for 30 minutes someone knocked. And without waiting for an answer Kaiba entered.

He raised an eyebrow at the sight of the girl – she was still sitting as if paralyzed.

Kaiba resisted the urge to wave his hand back and forth in front of her face. Instead he cleared his throat.

Nikki jumped at the sudden noise and shook her head violently. As she looked up at him her cheeks had turned slightly pink, "G-good morning" she managed to say.

"Indeed" Kaiba responded remembering the article, "since you are ready, please follow me – we have some work to do."

Nikki kept silent and just nodded before following him. She assumed they were heading for his office and therefore almost bumped into him as he stopped in front of a door she didn't know existed.

The room they entered was rectangular and the only furniture consisted of a long table filled with computers and different screens (most likely surveillance).

Two chairs had been placed at the table's middle. Kaiba sat down on the one to the right and gestured Nikki to the other. Without further hesitation she sat down too.

"Okay, what do you know about this virus and how can we find it?" he asked without further ado.

Nikki thought for a moment, "I think it's kind of a "hostile takeover"..." unconsciously she put her finger to her lips. Kaiba suddenly remembered how soft they were... "They use some kind of program to bit by bit enter your system, where they transform into data of the same kind as yours. When enough data has been converted they can rewrite your firewall and take full control over your system. But it had to take quite some time."

She glanced at him through her lashes as he nodded, "Can it be traced?"

Nikki shrugged, "I think it's possible... I mean I only ruined the program on their computers, which probably also would have removed a lot of it from yours, but not everything."

"So in reality my system has been doubled." He thought out loud, "Then we might be able to find some traces if we find pieces of the replica."

"Sounds like a plan" Nikki said and allowed herself a small grin.

They worked concentrated for an hour. Nobody uttered a word and the only sound was the frantic tapping coming from the keyboard as their hands flew across it. Or more like hand in Nikki's case; her left hand still wasn't fully healed and she was forced to work with the right one only. She wore the fingerless gloves Kaiba had given her before the tournament; she just loved them – for more than one reason.

"Found it!" they both exclaimed at the same time. They looked at each other, both trying to keep an expressionless face. Nikki was the first to look away.

"We won't be able to trace it" she said as she looked at Kaiba's chest, "I crashed it too thoroughly. Besides, I think the virus would only lead us back to the orphanage anyway."

Kaiba didn't answer, instead he just leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed and his hands on the armrests.

Nikki waited. Patiently.

"Maybe this isn't bad at all" he said after a few minutes of silence, "It's pointless to trace it back to some place we know where is." He glanced over at Nikki to see if she was catching his drift. She looked rather puzzled but slowly his words sank in.

Kaiba continued: "It's highly unlikely that they won't try again and since they know you are here, they'll figure you told me all about their pathetic plan" he gave Nikki a sharp look, "They will expect higher security".

"Well of course..." Nikki began, "We need to protect the system?"

"Yes we do, but as they say: The best defence is a good offence. When they try hacking my system again it'll send a tracking virus back. And then I'll get them."

As he talked it began to dawn to Nikki "_Brilliant."_

"We still need to increase your defence, though" Nikki added, "Otherwise they might think we're up to something."

Kaiba nodded; a bit impressed that she picked the weakness in his plan up so fast.

"That's not a problem – you'll work on the firewalls and other anti-virus programs and I'll plant the tracking virus."

And with these words they got to work.

Nikki finished her job a bit before 2 and left the room without disturbing Kaiba. Deciding to get something to eat, she headed for the kitchen.

Kaiba finished his "mission" half an hour later and went to find Nikki. She deserved a little reward for her hard work.

Nikki sat at the kitchen table focusing so hard on her tuna sandwich that she didn't notice Kaiba, as he entered the room.

Suddenly this morning's paper was dropped in front of her. Puzzled she looked up and found Kaiba heading for the fridge; she raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Page 6" was his only reply.

Intrigued she quickly found page six and began reading.

Kaiba watched the girl's shifting expressions as the look on her face changed from confusion and curiosity to a smile of pure hatred and cruel delight. Kaiba almost shivered as he felt the threatening aura emerge from the girl. The cold smirk on his face grew wider.

The silence and tension was suddenly broken when Mokuba entered the kitchen, "I'm ho..."

He stopped midsentence at the weird scene in front of him: Nikki was clutching this morning's newspaper with the scariest smile he'd ever seen upon her lips, while his brother watched her with something that could almost be called amusement.

Suddenly Nikki's face snapped in his direction and the evil smile was quickly replaced by the more normal soft one.

Mokuba almost sighed in relief, "Wanna play duel-monsters?" he quickly asked, still slightly disturbed by the previous episode.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow at his brother, but didn't say anything. Mokuba took this as a good sign, "pleeeaaaaaaaaase?" he whined at Nikki, given her the biggest puppy eyes he could muster.

Nikki's insides melted and she got up.

As she walked past Kaiba she met his eyes, "Thank you" she muttered and looked away, but not before Kaiba had caught another glimpse of malicious satisfaction in her dark blue eyes, "You're welcome."

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**I really don't know why I called Saul, Saul... Maybe it's just a good name for an evil minion? o.O originally I named him Robert XD **

**As usual, please review :3 hopefully you liked it!**

**and I'll do my best to update as soon as possible, though it'll probably take a bit longer than this. **


	14. Chapter 14 Fighting

**Hello there! I feel like I'm doing nothing but apologize for late updates, but here you go again: I'm sorry for not updating sooner. You really should sue me or something -.- **

**But! before you do so I'd like to thank all of you :3 I've gotten over 70 reviews, 4000 hits, 28 favs and 28 alerts. It's just amazing! ~YAY~**

**Anyway, on with the story!**

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**Fighting:**

Nikki woke early the next morning. She couldn't sleep. Frustrated she looked at the clock, "_4.33_".She cursed under her breath.

Staying in bed she stared at the ceiling. She knew why she couldn't sleep. One reason: Seto Kaiba.

How she hated herself right now – she was just absolutely and utterly pathetic! Falling in love with a guy she couldn't have or more importantly: Shouldn't have, "_If it's so damn easy to fall in love, why the hell can't I just fall out of love with that idiot!?"_ She fumed, getting more and more aggravated.

Finally she jumped out of bed and started pacing her room, switching between scolding herself for being so stupid, hoping that Kaiba would forgive her and maybe even love her, and scolding herself some more for thinking the previous.

"You-are-a-pathetic-idiot! You-are-a-pathetic-idiot! You-are-a-pathetic-idiot..." she chanted as she stomped around in circles fitting each word with a stomp.

She wanted to scream, drink her brain out or destroy something in pure frustration. Taking a deep breath she tried to collect herself a bit, "Cold shower." She muttered and headed for the bathroom.

The cold shower didn't help much, her thoughts still kept returning to the same eyes, the same face, the same voice...

Nikki sighed; she simply had to find something to keep her mind of him otherwise she'd start acting like a silly, drooling, lovesick, pathetic fangirl. Not. An. Option.

So she turned on the computer and started the tracking device a certain person had put together. They'd agreed that the program should be running all the time on an extern computer which Nikki would be in charge of. She was actually a bit touched that he trusted her this mu... She slapped herself, literally, "_Back off girly! That's forbidden territory..." _

* * *

Walking out of the mansion was the very same person Nikki's thought seemed to return to like the guilty to a crime scene.

Kaiba quickly reached his car, started it and raced out the driveway giving absolutely shit about any speed regulations. Picture after picture of a girl flashed through his mind, including some of two dark blue eyes with a malicious glimpse and soft, red lips curved in a cruel smile. The heat in his stomach started moving downwards.

His thoughts were luckily interrupted when a light curve suddenly changed to red and he had to stand on the brakes. Cursing badly he returned his mind to the actual "problem".

He'd forgiven the girl – no doubt about it. For some reason Kaiba was pretty sure he'd never had anything to say in that matter. And that annoyed the hell out of him.

Fortunately and probably due to his hazardous driving, he'd reached KaibaCorp in no time. He'd figured there'd be more work here than at home and much more distractions.

As he reached his office he saw the huge pile of papers on his desk and the red light on his answering machine, and for once he was grateful for his incompetent and idiotic employees. "_Lots of distractions..."_

* * *

After another breakfast with Mokuba, Nikki was yet again left alone. To take her mind of a certain blue-eyed CEO she found the article from yesterday. Smiling she read it again.

It felt like a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders and for the first time since she could remember she actually felt free. It didn't seem to matter that the people who were trying to steal Kaiba's money probably wanted her dead, she'd finally been released from the invisible chains Sanders had held her in. She raised her right hand and let it trace the scar on the back of her neck. Her only regret, though, was that she wasn't the one to light the fire. If she ever found the man who did it, she'd kiss him straight on the mouth.

She shook her head at the silly thought, "_Imagine me walking up to a coldblooded murderer and kissing him? That would be a sight, though I probably wouldn't be around long enough to enjoy it..." _

Talking about kissing... An image of icy-blue eyes and silky brown locks suddenly flashed before her eyes and unconsciously she raised a hand to her lips. She needed air.

However tempting it was to just walk out the front door and go for a "real" walk, Nikki resisted it. Kaiba would be angry (again) and it was a poor thank-you for his protection. So instead she headed for the door to the garden.

Aimlessly Nikki wandered around the garden for hours. Exhausted and out of breath she went back inside the mansion. Heading back for her room Nikki cursed her bad shape. Walking around doing nothing for weeks didn't do anything for your stamina.

She let herself fall onto her bed and almost immediately fell asleep. Her leg twitched slightly as a scene formed inside her head.

_Nikki felt something warm beneath her. Something soft and hard at the same time. Glancing down she saw Kaiba staring up at her apparently rather baffled. _

_Nikki's body started acting on its own. Helplessly (but enjoying it very much) she felt her hands move up his hard, muscular chest until they reached his face. Leaning down she closed the distance between their lips until she could feel his hot breath on her face._

_Suddenly hands grabbed her from behind and began dragging her away from the man beneath her..._

Nikki's eyes flew open and were met with a big mass of coal black hair and soft blue eyes.

"You all right?" a slightly concerned Mokuba asked, "you were fidgeting like mad and saying weird noises... Did you have a nightmare?"

Nikki blinked a few times before his words sunk in. "_No, I just had a __very__ pleasant dream in which I was pinning your brother to the floor, getting ready to kiss the living daylight out of him..." _ she thought as she nodded.

"What time is it?" she quickly asked, eager to change the subject.

Mokuba glanced at his watch, "3.40 pm." He suddenly remembered something, "I actually woke you to tell you that you have a visitor!" he grinned.

Nikki looked puzzled at him, who would visit her? She didn't have any friends and she doubted her enemies would enter through the front door. She heard someone clear their throat in the door and looked. "_Well, one friend then"_ she thought as she smiled at Tea.

"I thought you might need some girl company" Mokuba grimaced, "I'll be in my room doing my homework... See you guys later" he yelled over his shoulder as he left the room.

"Hi..." Tea greeted as she entered the room.

"Hi" Nikki started to feel kinda awkward, "_Come on girl! She chose your underwear!"_ she thought as she kept a smile plastered on her face.

"Do you mind if I stay in bed? I'm pretty tired" She started as Tea looked at her questioningly. "Just sit down and make yourself comfortable" she said and nodded to the bed while she seated herself against the railing, giving Tea more space.

The truth was that she wasn't tired, actually the nap had been quite refreshing, but she didn't feel like going anywhere she'd accidently bump into Kaiba. Staying in bed was definitely safest.

"So..." Nikki began, "What's up?" It was a lame question, but an icebreaker nonetheless.

"Not much really" Tea shrugged, "hanging with the guys, school, homework and so on... How about you?" She countered. Nikki didn't catch the concerned tone in her voice.

"_Getting busted for lying, stealing and swallowing half a bottle of Scotch, getting busted for lying again and having dirty dreams about Seto Kaiba..." _Nikki thought as she answered: "Not much, still in the healing process..." She smiled sheepishly and tried to wave her left hand.

"Uhm..." Tea hesitated, "If you don't mind me asking: What happened at the tournament? Suddenly you vanished and then Kaiba came back in looking like someone had threatened to hurt Mokuba? We got a bit worried."

It was a huge understatement. They'd gotten really worried and since they didn't hear anything from neither Kaiba nor Mokuba, they'd decided that Tea should pay Nikki a visit, trying to learn more.

"_Shit!"_ Nikki thought, trying hard to come up with a reasonable explanation. "_Keep it close to the truth..."_

"Well... there was this creep who followed me to the bathroom." She saw Tea's eyes widen in shock, "and... well, he started to feel me up and say nasty things, but luckily Kaiba had seen him walk into the ladies room and followed the guy close behind. He called security... I was so shaken be the experience that I felt sick and so Kaiba brought me to the limo and went back inside. He seemed very pissed at his security guards to let something like that happen" Nikki added as Tea's eyes grew even bigger.

"Oh my god!!" She exclaimed, "Are you sure you're okay? Do you wanna talk about it? You shouldn't let something like that be bottle up..." She rambled on.

On a sudden impulse Nikki hugged her, "Thank you! But I promise you I'm okay..." She suddenly felt a pang of guilt, but pushed it aside.

Tea, oblivious to Nikki's inner turmoil, hugged her back happy that her friend was all right, though a little confused about her story – it wasn't like Kaiba to get that worked up about security failure unless it involved his little brother. Of course he'd be pissed and probably fire every single guard, but at the tournament he'd been positively livid. What exactly was going on between the cold CEO and her new-found friend? Maybe she should interrogate Mokuba? She'd definitely leave the option open.

Realising that she'd been quiet for longer than it would be expected, she cleared her throat, "Actually there's two reasons why I came today. One was of course to see you and spend some time with you" She gave Nikki a warm smile, "The other... well, I wanted to ask you a favour."

Nikki raised an eyebrow and Tea saw this as her cue to continue, "I don't know if you know this, but Mokuba's birthday is on this Saturday. The guys and I are planning to give him... sort of a scrapbook with lots of things from our "adventures" together. There's a lot of films and photo amongst and since none of us is the biggest wizard with a computer, I was wondering if you'd help us put something together?"

Nikki didn't have to think twice before she smiled and nodded, "Of course I'll help! I just need the material."

Tea smiled sheepishly, "I'd hoped you'd say that... I actually brought it."

"Great! I can start now if you want? You're more than welcome to stay and help?"

"I'd love to, but I'm not sure how much help I can be."

Nikki smiled, "In any case it's always nice with good company." She said as she got up and fetched the computer.

As she seated herself on the bed again, Tea spoke: "Hey Nikki, why do you have two computers?"

Nikki stared from her to the turned on computer on the desk. "Ehm... I'm doing some pretty extensive research for Kaiba and therefore need two."

"Oh..." was all Tea said before she found multiple discs from a purse Nikki hadn't noticed.

* * *

Kaiba slammed the telephone down. Why couldn't those idiots think for themselves? Returning to his computer screen he cursed under his breath, while mentally writing dismissal notes.

* * *

Nikki didn't know how long the two of them had been working, when Tea decided to start some polite conversation.

"Did you hear about the fire? You know the one that killed a man."

Nikki immediately stopped what she was doing and went rigid. Forcing herself to breath she began typing again. "Nah, didn't really pay that much attention – just saw the headlines..."

She hoped that that was enough to stop further discussion on that topic.

Tea had noticed Nikki tensing up, but before she'd processed it, Nikki was back to normal. "_Did I just imagine that?"_ She thought. She didn't mention the article again.

Nikki sensed the sudden tension between them, "how are the guys?" She figured that the question was a pretty good conversation starter. And she was right.

Tea continued telling about one episode after another of Joey's goofs and Yugi's duels. She still seemed to have a lot to say when Nikki 43 minutes later exclaimed: "Finished!"

She handed Tea the disc with the final product. "Now let's get something to eat!"

Nikki practically dragged Tea to the kitchen.

In the kitchen they found Mokuba already eating. They quickly joined him and the three of them chatted happily until Tea had to go home.

Nikki and Mokuba said goodnight and went to bed. The clock showed 10.55 pm.

* * *

In another part of the town, more specifically in an old apartment building, was a young man sitting in front of no less than five computer screens. He had dark red hair that stopped just beneath his ears. It was greasy and tousled from going to many days without being washed. His green eyes flickered across the screens, as his long and bony fingers flew across the different keyboards.

His name was Ralph and he was waiting for a call from the Boss.

* * *

Kaiba closed and locked the door behind him, and slowly made his way to his room, stopping shortly in front of his brother's bedroom. With a quick glance he established that his brother was safe and sound asleep. He ignored the door to the girl's room.

Quickly changing into something more comfortable he slipped into his bed, checking his watch before placing it on the nightstand, "1.15" he mumbled and closed his eyes. Two blue sapphires appeared inside his mind and slowly he drifted to sleep.

* * *

Nikki woke early the next morning and decided to wake Mokuba for a change. But when she peeked into his room it was empty. "_Must be up already"_ she thought as she headed for the kitchen.

As she neared the kitchen she heard voices. And they weren't happy.

"They are my friend" a high pitched voice yelled. Definitely Mokuba.

"No they are not" A deeper and more controlled voice replied, "And I don't want that mutt in my house!"

Nikki slowly opened the door and looked inside. Both Kaiba and Mokuba were standing, glaring at each other from opposite sides of the table.

Mokuba shortly looked at Nikki and nodded. Kaiba, being the one facing away from the door, ignored her.

Nikki began feeling extremely uncomfortable, not only because she'd just walked in on a fight between the two brothers, but she still didn't know where she and Kaiba were standing or if he'd even forgiven her. One thing was working with him, this was entirely different.

Mokuba changed his tactic "Pleeeeaaaase Brother! It's my birthday and I want my friends to be there."

Nikki could see Kaiba's shoulder tensing up, before they relaxed again. Both she and Kaiba knew that Mokuba wouldn't change his mind. Besides, he'd just gone into puppy-eyes-mode.

"Fine!" Kaiba said between his teeth, "but don't expect me to keep those geeks company!"

Before he could turn around and leave, Mokuba had raced around the table and hugged him, "Thank you so much Seto!"

Kaiba didn't answer; he just patted Mokuba on the head and left the kitchen. Right before he walked out the door his and Nikki's eyes locked and suddenly Nikki saw something deep within his ice-blue eyes, but before she could study it further Kaiba was gone. A shiver ran down her spine.

From the table Mokuba grinned at her and gave her thumbs up. Nikki smiled and joined him for breakfast

* * *

**So... I really hoped you liked it :3 please let me know!**

**This story is really getting quite long.. I'd imagined that it maybe would be 10 chapters tops, but there just seem to be those little sneaky chappies who just appears out of nowhere? o.O ah well, I doubt you'll be complaining ;) **

**btw. it's 65 pages long in word!! I'm actually quite proud of myself.. **


	15. Chapter 15 The Party

**Hello people! I know it's been a long time since I last updated, but I just can't keep apologizing. Instead you'll have to settle with a longer-than-usual chapter! Yay *Applause***

**I really hope you enjoy this chapter, cause I really like it :D **

**

* * *

The Party**

It was Friday evening. Or more like Friday night, actually. Nikki couldn't sleep. She felt anxious and frustrated, and she still had a hard time ignoring what she felt for Kaiba.

For the past two days she'd done her best to avoid Kaiba, which she'd managed rather successfully though this was mostly due to Kaiba's resolution to do the same. Even so she often found her mind wandering back to the same thing over and over again...

"_This has to end!"_ Nikki thought as she threw the blankets aside and got up. She quietly left her room and headed for the garden door. Walking out into the garden she regretted that she hadn't brought her jacket – the fall was coming to an end and the temperature had been falling steady for the last few weeks.

Nikki decided to ignore the cold as best as she could and began her stroll around the garden.

It was a beautiful night, the sky was clear and the moon was almost full. She found a large stone to sit on and her mind immediately returned to the handsome CEO.

In the dark and cold night Nikki realised that her struggles probably were in vain, "_Maybe I should just stop fighting it... it's not like it's going to change anything anyway..." _She mused as she looked at the stars.

Little did Nikki know that she wasn't the only one enjoying a rather stunning view. Kaiba had taken a break from his work in his office and sat staring out the window when he suddenly noticed a small figure. Because of the moonlight it didn't take him long to recognize the girl.

He cursed quietly; did the girl have some kind of death wish? She was dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers.

Kaiba knew that he should go down and drag her in before she caught a cold, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from illuminated girl.

Her short dark hair moved in the light breeze as she looked up in the sky.

His brows furrowed; she looked so thin and vulnerable in the soft moonlight, "_This is no good"_ he thought as he forced himself away from the window. Quickly he shut down his computers and rushed to his bedroom before Nikki re-entered.

About 20 minutes later Nikki closed the door to the garden and made her way to her room. With a small frown on her face she fell asleep.

_A scene formed in Nikki's head and she immediately recognized it. It was the kissing-Kaiba-on-the-floor-dream, though this time some disturbing details had been added. Firstly, she discovered that they were lying on what seemed to be the kitchen floor; secondly Nikki caught a glimpse of something in the corner of her eye. Turning her head she saw the empty liquor bottle._

Nikki's eyes flew open, "_That can't be what happened that night!"_ She lay completely still for several minutes, trying to dismiss the dream as nothing more than that – a dream.

Still fighting the possibility for it to be true Nikki fell asleep again and this time there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

She woke at 5 am the next morning. Uttering a very annoyed grunt she got up and stumbled to the bathroom without sparing a single thought on her dream. 60 minutes later she tried to sneak into Mokuba's room only to find him already awake.

"Argh dang it!" Nikki exclaimed and caught Mokuba's attention, "Here I come to wake you up on your birthday and then you're already awake?" she continued with false cheerfulness.

Mokuba smiled sheepishly, "yeah, brother had to leave early for work so he woke me to give me my present and say happy birthday. He just left 15 minutes ago."

Walking over to Mokuba and catching him in a fierce hug, Nikki praised her luck, "Happy birthday!" she yelled in his ear leaving him slightly perplexed. "You'll have to wait 'till tonight to get my present. Me and the guys planned something together."

"Yay!" Mokuba exclaimed, "Can I get just a little hint?"

"Hmm... it's yellow, purple and green, smells like bubblegum and looks like a giant potato."

Mokuba's jaw immediately dropped and he looked at her in disbelief. "You're kidding right?" he asked, almost desperate.

"Yup!" Nikki replied happily as she started towards the door, "Let's go have some breakfast! I'm starving..."

Grumbling Mukoba followed. However, his grumbling soon subsided as a delicious smell reached them from the kitchen. "Looks like Seto ordered breakfast!"

And right he was. When they entered the kitchen they discovered a table full of different kinds of breakfast. Both quickly sat down and began munching.

They ate together in silence neither fully awake, but even so Mokuba couldn't help but wonder about how exaggerated cheerful Nikki was. It just seemed off – like it was some kinda act.

Catching his gaze upon her, Nikki flashed him a big grin and he just couldn't help giving her one back.

"So... what do you wanna do today?" Nikki asked with her mouth full of something that looked like half-chewed pancakes.

"We need to prepare the party for tonight!" he replied happily, "And I've decided that you're gonna help me."

"What makes you think that you can order me around?" Nikki countered with a false frown on her face.

"The fact that it's my birthday." Mokuba stated matter-of-factly while ignoring Nikki's mocking expression.

"Fair enough... but will it really take us all day? This place is big, but surely you don't mean to do an all-around-make-over?"

"Duh... of course not... Once we have finished we're going to try out Seto's gift!" Mokuba practically jumped up and down his chair and Nikki had to suppress the urge to laugh. She managed... almost.

"I guess this is the point where I ask what he gave you?"

"Yup! It's a set of "custom-made" duel-disc! Made especially for me" Nikki could hear the love and affection Mokuba had for his older brother, doing her best to keep her own feelings at bay, she urged him to go on.

"They are designed to work on a smaller scale so that I'll be able to use them in my room and it's also possible to duel against an integrated computer!" he continued, again jumping up and down.

"Ah, I see... well, then we better get started right?" she asked with a playful wink.

* * *

Ralph made his way to the door when the clock struck 12, not moments before a single knock was heard.

Starting to feel more and more uncomfortable he looked around his cramped apartment and wished he'd had enough time to tidy just a bit up. He didn't think the Boss would care one way or another, but in any case...

Rubbing his sweaty palm on his jeans, he used the other to comb through his unruly hair in a vain attempt to look a bit more presentable, but to no avail. Taking a deep breath he turned the knob and opened the door.

The Boss walked in without any kind of invitation or whatsoever and seated himself in a free chair at Ralph's kitchen table.

Ralph felt a surge of relief when it became clear that Saul wouldn't make an appearance. Even though no one had confirmed his suspicion he was pretty sure Saul had something to do with Sanders's death. Trying to keep his head calm he joined the Boss at the table and waited. He knew better than to offer him anything or ask any questions, the Boss would get to the point soon enough.

"Are we ready for another attempt?" the Boss asked in his monotonous voice.

"Almost... I've checked Kaiba's system and as expected he has improved his protection a great deal. Give me till Tuesday and the virus will be ready." Ralph risked a short glimpse on the Boss' face, but it was as emotionless as ever.

"Very well" he began while he got up and headed for the door where he stopped at looked back at Ralph, "You have until Monday." And with those words he was gone.

Ralph slumped back into his chair and let out a deep breath. "_That went well..."_ he thought dryly and returned to his computers. One day less meant working till he dropped. Downing a cup of half-cold dead coffee he started typing.

* * *

"Done!" Mokuba exclaimed cheerfully as he tied the last balloon. Looking around he noticed that they were practically being drowned in colourful balloons of all sizes and shapes.

Feeling kinda hyperventilated Nikki huffed, "you'd think that the brother of a multi billionaire would have some fancy device to blow up these friggin' balloons" she said as she flicked a yellow one in Mokuba's direction.

Mokuba wisely chose to ignore her, "Let see; we have the balloons, food, snacks, Wii, videos, music... Did I miss anything?"

Rolling her eyes Nikki retorted sarcastically, "How about a live rock band and a circus?"

"Nah, brother won't like elephants in his living room... Just stop sulking already... save it for when I kick your ass in Duel Monsters!"

Nikki stuck her tongue out, but followed nonetheless.

* * *

Kaiba had worked relentlessly since early morning and a short look at his watched told him that he had to head home soon. The geek patrol would arrive in less than an hour and he refused to let those brats wander around his house when he wasn't there!

Giving his watch one last evil glare he grabbed his coat and stormed out the door not bothering to say goodbye to his secretary. 15 minutes later he arrived at the mansion. Taking a deep breath he entered.

Neither Nikki nor Mokuba heard the slam of the front door. They didn't realise that they weren't alone until Kaiba cleared his throat from the doorway to Mokuba's room.

Both Nikki's and Mokuba's head snapped up at the sound, their duel disc proclaiming that Mokuba was yet again the victorious duellist.

Nikki's heart started pounding its way through her chest as Kaiba's presence instantly reminded her of her dream. Blushing, her feet suddenly became unbelievably interesting. "_Please don't let the dream be true. Please don't let the dream be true. Please don't let..." _She repeated over and over again in her head, trying to make herself to believe it.

Almost used to the strange spinning in his stomach Kaiba tried to avoid looking at the girl, instead he firmly locked his eyes on his brother. Something that looked very much like a genuine smile spread on his face, "I see you are enjoying your gift. I'm glad you like it."

"It's just the coolest thing ever, brother!" Mokuba yelled enthusiastically as he hugged his brother ferociously.

Gently freeing himself Kaiba patted his head, "I'll be in my office if you need me." He began to leave the room, but stopped as he was halfway through the door. Trying his best to sound sincere he looked back over his shoulder, "Have a good time." And then he was gone.

Slightly confused Nikki tore her eyes away from the spot, which moments ago had been occupied by the CEO, "What did he mean by that? Won't he be joining?"

Mokuba shook his head, "Nah, he isn't particularly fond of the guys" he replied dryly, "It'll probably just in a fight... But it's okay. He promised to stay home all day tomorrow to make up for it."

"A whole day with Kaiba? Oh. Shit." Nikki thought desperately. Noticing that Mokuba was waiting for some kind of response, she quickly added: "That's great!"

Trying to ignore the false cheeriness in Nikki's voice Mokuba glanced at the clock, "Whoa, it's already 5.30... better get ready."

"Dang, you're right.. see ya in a few" Nikki said and left the room, returning to her room.

* * *

Staring blankly into her closet she tried to decide what to wear. Every time she convinced herself that she could dress as casually as she wanted, a picture of Kaiba popped up in her head. After a few minutes of fighting the urge to wear something just a little hot, she gave up and tucked on a pair of slim black jeans, a red shirt and a black waiter's vest. Giving herself an once-over in the mirror she cursed herself for being this single-minded.

"_Ah well.. at least I look nice" _ She thought and began her way to meet up with Mokuba.

When Mokuba saw her he couldn't help staring. Just a bit. The low-waist jeans fitted her slim legs as a second layer of skin and the vest made the shirt pull a little upwards revealing a thin line of white marble skin. Closing his mouth he gave her what hopefully looked like a happy innocent smile.

As the two of the entered the room the doorbell rang, "They're here!" Mokuba yelled and raced to the front door.

When he opened he was met with a deafening congratulation. "Hey guys! Come in!" He said when the ringing in his ears had stopped, "There's food, drinks and snacks for everyone."

"Food? Did ya say food?" A voice asked, sounding suspiciously much like Joey and before Mokuba could move out of the way, he was practically knocked over by Joey and Tristan.

Sweat-dropping, both Yugi and Tea sighed, "Sorry 'bout that Mokuba..." Tea said defeated, "Why don't we go in and stop those morons before they eat you out of the house... you also need to have your present." She added with a wink.

"Sure! Nikki told me you're in on this together"

"yeah, you'll see how when you open it" Yugi answered seeing as Tea was already heading for the guys ready to give them a piece of her mind.

She found the two of them by the table, downing one bowl of chips after another while Nikki stood leaning against the wall with a slightly disturbed look on her face. She looked away from the boys as Tea approached, "How can they eat that fast?" she asked incredulous.

"Because they got nothing but a stomach" Tea replied through gritted teeth before she grabbed the two gluttons by their neck, slamming their heads together.

Half knocked out Joey and Tristan slumped to the floor not entirely sure of what had just happened, but before any of them could open their mouth to ask, Tea was already scolding them, "Don't you have any manners? It's Mokuba's birthday and we haven't even giving him his present yet!"

"Thought ya'd do it... Besides: Food." Joey just said as if it justified everything.

"Argh!" was all Tea managed to say before she gave Joey a right hook leaving him ¾ knocked out.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side" Nikki muttered under her breath.

"Heh, sorry about that" Tea smiled sheepishly, "You look nice by the way" she added in an obvious attempt to move the attention away from the two moaning boys on the floor.

"Well, you picked it" Nikki just said, feeling a bit uncomfortable, "Isn't about time Mokuba got his present?"

"You right!" Tea shrieked, "I can't believe those two idiots almost made me forget!" and before Nikki knew it she was being dragged towards Mokuba and Yugi, who'd wisely chosen to ignore the whole "incident".

Pulling a big, nicely wrapped package out from gods know where, Tea handed it to Mokuba, earning a very big smile in return.

Ripping the wrapping of like a wild animal, Mokuba reached the box that lay inside. Still grinning widely he pulled out a scrapbook and a DVD.

As he started leaf through the pages, Tea explained: "It's pictures and videos from all our adventures together. Apparently there's more than enough material to fill an entire book with no problems.

"Thanks guys!" It's just great! I love it!" Mokuba exclaimed as he hugged the three of them. Turning his attention to the table and the two still too-wounded-to-get-up-guys he yelled: "And thanks to you too!"

He got a synchronized moan in return. Turning his attention back to Nikki, Tea and Yugi he smiled broadly, "Let's get something to eat now and then we can do whatever you want to"

At the prospect of "legally" getting something to eat Joey and Tristan jumped up cartoon style and continued their gorging.

Minutes later they were all sitting together at the table, joking and laughing while eating delicious food.

When they were done they returned to the living room where they took turns in testing Mokuba's new duel discs. As Nikki and Joey engaged in a fierce duel, Tea managed to drag Mokuba out of ear shot.

"What's up?" Mokuba asked slightly confused as Tea came to a halt.

"Is there anything going on about Nikki that I don't know? Something isn't adding up here" She blurted, though leaving any suspicions she might had had about Nikki and Kaiba out.

Looking very uncomfortable, Mokuba tried to find a way, but Tea was merciless.

"If you can't tell me everything, at least tell me if I'm right or wrong" she sighed.

"Well" Mokuba began not sure of how much he could reveal, "Let's just say her past got up with her at the tournament and she had some information she forgot sharing..." looking at Tea he waited for a response to his "diplomacy".

When Tea didn't say anything he continued, "I'm sorry Tea, but I'm not allowed to tell you anything. Nikki is in a weird way connected to KC and I'll probably get in trouble for telling you this much." He looked at her with pleading eyes.

Considerably softened, Tea managed a smile, "It's okay.. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining things."

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a triumphant Joey singing: "I won, I won, I won, I won..." while Nikki tried to look pissed. She failed miserably.

Handing the duel disc to Yugi, she whispered, "Please kick his ass for me!"

The duelling continued most of the evening until it was time for the pack to go home. After they had left Nikki and Mokuba started cleaning. "Why don't you just go to bed? Then I'll finish this." She asked as he saw Mokuba struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Thanks Ni-Nikki" he yawned, "I'll just say goodnight to Seto, then I'll be off to bed... 'Night!"

"Sweet dreams"

Nikki worked slowly. She was starting to feel the sleepiness, but stubbornly she managed to clean the room enough to look at least a little bit presentable. Yawning, she emptied the bowls of leftovers in the trash can and left the empty dishes by the sink.

Still yawning she started her way up the stairs towards her room and was just about to enter, when she heard an angry voice yelling something in a foreign language.

"_Should I go tell him goodnight?" _Nikki wondered as she stared at the door to Kaiba's office. Remembering her dream Nikki almost recoiled, but with a deep breath she knocked on the door.

* * *

Kaiba slammed the telephone down. A big American contractor had just withdrawn his offer to build a Kaibaland in Florida. Cursing badly, Kaiba got up and started circulating his desk while glaring at the phone, when suddenly someone knocked. Since Mokuba had already been there, it could only be one person. And true enough, moments later the pixie entered the office. "_Oh no..."_

Looking pretty nervous she slowly walked to stand in front of Kaiba. "Uhm... I just wanted to say goodnight... So ehh goodnight" Nikki stuttered without looking him in the eyes.

"Goodnight" Kaiba just replied in his ever so emotionless voice, while fighting to keep his emotion at bay.

Nikki turned and headed for the door, but when she reached it a sudden impulse got her to stop, turn around and walk back to Kaiba. This time she looked him straight in the eyes, "what happened when I was drunk?" She asked feeling her cheeks burn.

"You kissed me" Kaiba answered matter-of-factly, while turning to look through some papers on his desk. He had a desperate need to get away from the topic.

"You make it sound like it's no big deal!" Nikki exclaimed, terrified that her suspicion had been true and pissed that Kaiba acted so unaffected.

"It isn't" Kaiba began, "You were absolutely wasted and I was just the nearest "victim". I know I'm good-looking and it's possible that you have some kind of hero-infatuation towards me."

Almost seething with anger, Nikki grabbed his collar and closed the distance between their lips. When she got no reaction from Kaiba she hissed: "Do you have any idea how hard I've fought not to be in love with you?"

Kaiba's mind went momentarily blank at her words. She was in love with him? And since she didn't want to be, did that mean that it was more than just a mere infatuation? The great CEO was severely perplexed and couldn't come up with a reply. Instead he chose to let his action speak for him as he pinned the girl against the nearest wall one hand on each side of her head.

Feeling the heat and closeness from Kaiba's body everywhere, Nikki willed herself to speak, but found that she was unable to do so. Using her right hand she tried to push Kaiba away, but little did it help.

Ignoring the hand completely Kaiba just pressed his body closer to Nikki, trapping the hand between their bodies.

Nikki felt a strange spinning in her stomach as Kaiba cupped her face with his hand and suddenly she had a very hard time breathing. She tried to speak again, but before she could even open her mouth, Kaiba's lips came crushing down on hers and any coherent thought vanished. Her only focus became Kaiba's tongue as it traced the outlines of her lips, demanding entrance, which she was more than happy to grant him. There was no battle for control this time, instead their tongues danced together, exploring every inch of the other's mouth.

Wriggling, Nikki tried to free the hand that was trapped between their bodies to let it entangle itself in the soft brown locks, but as soon as she got it freed, Kaiba caught it together with the other one and locked them beside her head. Feeling a stab of pain in her still healing hand, Nikki whimpered in his mouth. Kaiba immediately hesitated, broke the kiss and let go.

Instantly Nikki missed the smouldering heat from his body and his demanding lips upon hers. Reaching up she let her hands rest on his shoulders and on tiptoes she placed a feather-light kiss on his lips.

This time that was all it took before she again was pressed against the wall.

Kaiba was lost. All his suppressed feelings had been released and he felt that if he let go of the girl, he would explode. He needed the intoxicating feel that emerged from where their lips connected and their bodies touched.

After what seemed to be only a few seconds he broke the kiss again and Nikki was just about to scream in frustration, when she felt his teeth nip gently on her earlobe. Moaning softly, she entangled her fingers in his hair.

As Kaiba's lips moved further down her neck, Nikki was positive that if he hadn't been pinning her against the wall, she would fall to the floor.

Kaiba couldn't help smiling slyly when he felt the shivers run through her body as he sucked on her neck. "_Revenge is sweet"_ he thought as he torturously slow let his hand explore her body as he returned his attention to her lips.

Tugging rather roughly on his hair, Nikki managed to break the kiss again, "more" was her only word, but that was all Kaiba needed to hear. Without further hesitation he scooped her up and with their lips still connected he slowly made his way to his bedroom.

* * *

**It's weird... for some reason Ralph has almost turned into my favourite in this story? XD Maybe I'll make him the main character instead?... well, maybe not -.- **

**Anyway, please let me know what you think and I'll really really try to update faster next time! **


	16. Chapter 16 Finished

**I'M SORRY! There I said... again. I am really and truly sorry for not updating in what - 4 weeks? You are in your right to throw things at me. Anyway, to make matters worse this chapter ain't even that long, but it has been a killer to right. I just couldn't figure out what to write o.O and on top on that I'm in the middle of my final exams (yay!) and have just been for a job trial. In England -.- **

**Enough chit-chat - On with the chapter!**

**

* * *

Finished**

Kaiba woke to something tickling the crook of his neck. Slowly looking down he discovered a girl sleeping soundly in his embrace.

Glancing at the clock he groaned; it was only 6 am, way too early to get up if he didn't have to work. Cursing silently he returned his attention to the sleeping Nikki.

Something inside him felt both calmer and wilder at the same time. He had her! And that wasn't going to change anytime soon, but... he had enemies, people who would do their best to hurt him by hurting those close to him. Heck, Mokuba had been kidnapped on more than one occasion.

Showing emotions was bad, having relationships was bad, but then again... did it make any difference if they were together or not? It had already been established that he couldn't change what he felt for her and neither could she, it seemed... So he might as well keep her close to him, protecting her like he protected his little brother.

The girl stirred in her sleep, unconsciously nuzzling his neck. Kaiba let his breath out in a hiss as his mind vividly reminded him of what had happened last night.

Deciding that it was in everyone's best interest that he found something to distract him, he started placing small kisses from the top of her head down the side of her face.

If he was going to suffer from insomnia she might as well join him...

Slowly opening her eyes, Nikki caught Kaiba's gaze. "'morning" she mumbled sleepy before her eyes fell shut again.

Kaiba waited patiently for about 30 seconds before Nikki's eyes flew open again.

Her blue orbs widened as she stared at Kaiba in disbelief, but she didn't move out of his embrace. Without looking away she raised her hand to her face and pinched her cheek.

"This isn't another dream?" she asked, still staring intensely at Kaiba, afraid that he might vanish if she looked away.

"No" Kaiba just answered calmly, "But I am flattered that you have dreamt of me before" he added in a bit more sarcastic tone.

"What?" Nikki's newly awakened brain had no idea what he was talking about.

"You asked another dream, not a dream" pausing he glanced down on the baffled girl, who was still resting her head on his upper arm, "and you have been drooling on my shoulder..." the last part sounded suspiciously like he was holding back a grin.

Nikki just stared at him blankly before his words sunk in.

"Sorry" she muttered as she ferociously rubbed his shoulder, where she had, indeed, drooled upon.

"Any regrets?"

The question immediately stopped Nikki's attempt to wipe the now non-existing saliva away. Returning her attention to Kaiba she examined his face. There were no traces of doubt or insecurity to find in his expressions, only mild interest. If Nikki hadn't been looking so closely, she could have sworn he looked indifferent... or bored...

Thinking about it for a few seconds, she answered him: "No, nothing. You?"

She tried to keep her voice as calm as and even as he had, but she failed miserably.

"No."

The answer came without any hesitation and Nikki let out her breath.

They looked each other in the eyes, both trying to figure the other one out, when Nikki caught sight of the clock behind Kaiba's shoulder. Her eyes widened for a second as her lips moved in a pattern that looked suspiciously like "6:15".

"It's only 6:15?" she exclaimed, "Why did you wake me up? I thought you were supposed to spend the day with Mokuba?" she looked expectantly at him, demanding a very good answer.

"I woke up and couldn't fall asleep again" Kaiba replied matter-of-factly.

Gaping, Nikki just stared at him for a moment before: "What the hell! You egotistical bastard! Who do you think y-"

Her words were abruptly interrupted by Kaiba's lips on hers. Instantly she forgot the list of names she was going to call him.

The kiss was nothing like those from last night. Instead of passionate and demanding it was tender and gentle almost... loving?

This however ended as soon as Nikki entangled her fingers in his already ruffled hair, pressing herself closer to him. The desire flamed again and it was only with great determination that Kaiba broke the kiss.

Caressing her cheek one last time he got up, leaving a very baffled Nikki staring at him.

"I need to get some work done before Mokuba wakes. You can go back to sleep – I'll wake you before I wake him." he said as he roamed the room in search of his clothes.

Nikki didn't reply as her brain momentarily shut down all rational thoughts at the sight of the naked CEO. It wasn't until he was completely dressed that it kicked back in.

"I thought you promised Mokuba not to work today?"

"I did" looking back at her he added, "What he doesn't know..."

He covered the distance to the bed in one long stride. Nikki closed her eyes as he kissed her lightly on the lips.

"Go back to sleep" he whispered before he straightened up and left the room... but not before he heard a cough that bore a slight resemblance to "Cheater".

Smirking he closed the door behind him.

* * *

Ralph rubbed his eyes ferociously before he got up and walked to the kitchen. As the coffee machine worked its magic he rummaged through various drawers in search of something that could remove his piercing headache. Finally he found some painkillers in a cupboard with empty discs. Pouring himself a cup of freshly made pitch-black-powder coffee he swallowed the pill before emptying the cup, not caring the burn in his tongue. He hadn't slept for over 36 hours and nothing indicated that he would get any rest anytime soon. When he had told the Boss that he could have the virus ready Tuesday, he had calculated with a tight schedule only containing a few hours of sleep every night, so with the deadline now 24 hours sooner, sleep was a luxury he wasn't allowed. No one disobeyed the Boss.

* * *

The clock showed 8:30 when Kaiba finished his second cup of coffee. It was about time to wake Mokuba, but before he managed to leave the kitchen his little brother entered.

"Morning Seto!" he exclaimed as he jumped up to sit on the counter next to Kaiba.

"Morning" Kaiba replied. Quickly putting his cup down he continued, "Now that you're awake I'll go wake Nikki."

"Sure thing brother" Mokuba said as he watched his brother leave the kitchen. Kaiba didn't see the smug grin on his face.

15 minutes later they all sat together at the table, eating their breakfast, while a rather strange monologue was going on. Kaiba, being almost his usual self, sat with an emotionless expression, while Nikki couldn't help keeping shifting back and forth in her chair feeling that the whole situation was rather awkward. Mokuba, on the other hand, didn't react to their weird behaviour as he kept talking about their plans.

"We could stay here and play duel monsters or we could go to an amusement park – not Kaibaland, but some other or we could –"

After 5 minutes of uninterrupted ideas for the day he suddenly stopped.

"Would you two snap out of it already!" he exclaimed exasperated, "When I woke this morning I went to wake you," he nodded in Kaiba's direction, "So I just walked into your room where I found you," he continued, now nodding in Nikki's direction, "It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened and I don't care. The only thing I have to say is: FINALLY!" He ended his little speech with a big grin.

Nikki felt her cheeks warm and was positively sure that she now had the colour of a very ripe tomato.

Kaiba, on the other hand, didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable, in fact had his trademark smirk returned in full strength. "I see" he just said stealing a glimpse in Nikki's direction, "Then I'm sure you don't mind if I do this?"

Leaning over the table he gently grabbed the back of Nikki's neck pressing her head just enough forward for their lips to connect.

Completely baffled by his sudden movement, Nikki didn't fight against the sudden pressure, instead she just gave into the kiss, enjoying every second of it.

Rolling his eyes, Mokuba let out an exaggerated sigh, "Okay guys, I got your point... please stop now or go to your room."

Smirking big-time Kaiba let go of Nikki and leaned back into his chair. Nikki did her best to ignore him as she, still red as a warning lamp, turned her attention to Mokuba, "So... what do you wanna do today?"

"Actually I would rather just stay here and..." he was interrupted by a low "thud" on the window, "And besides, it seems like it'll start raining."

And as if commanded, rain poured down from the sky splashing onto the window.

"Ehh... good idea" Nikki said as a sudden wind made the drops hammer against the glass with a great deal of force.

Suddenly Kaiba's phone began to ring. His hand gave an involuntary jerk as he fought the urge to answer it.

"You promised..." Mokuba warned as the CEO started to get the phone out of his pocket.

Just as Mokuba thought he'd answer it (he'd already gotten ready to do some yelling) his brother pressed a button and the ringing stopped. Smiling Mokuba leaned back into his chair for a few seconds before he jumped up again – this time from pure excitement.

"Enough stalling let's get going!"

* * *

They (Nikki and Kaiba) spent the rest of the day following Mokuba's orders as he "forced" them to play one game after another and countless duels until he fell asleep in the middle of the third horror movie in a row. By then the time showed 00:30.

As Mokuba's chatter stopped and Nikki realised he'd fallen asleep a sudden awkwardness began creeping in on her, followed by a wave of annoyance; she'd been comfortable around Kaiba the whole day, why the fuck should that change now?

They watched the rest of the movie in silence sitting in opposite sides of the sofa with a sleeping Mokuba in between.

When the actors' names started rolling over the screen Nikki frowned – how had the movie ended? She wasn't sure.

It was Kaiba who broke the silence first, "I'll put him to bet. It won't take long."

Nikki managed to nod. "_What the hell is wrong with you?"_ she scolded herself as Kaiba picked Mokuba up and left, "_You are supposed to have feelings for this guy... Heck, you've slept with him so why the fuck can't you just talk to him?"_

Her mental scolding continued until she suddenly felt a hand on her cheek. Focusing straight ahead she saw a kneeling Kaiba in front of her. Moving his hand to her hair he smirked, "Relax."

Nikki didn't reply she just looked at him with pleading eyes. Twirling a lock of her hand between his fingers Kaiba spoke again, "So, where do you want to sleep?"

He tried his best to sound as calm and unaffected as possible, but he was not sure he succeeded.

Nikki slowly lifted her hand to his cheek, "With you..."

The two words were nothing but a whisper, but they were all Kaiba needed to hear. Getting up he reached a hand out to Nikki which she tool without hesitation.

Expecting that he's only given her his hand out of courtesy Nikki wasn't prepared when he suddenly pulled her up into his arms. He kissed her gently before he freed her this time with a smile on his face – not a smirk but a real smile.

* * *

The clatter of fingers against keys was the only sound that could be heard in the semi-dark apartment. Ralph felt like a zombie and he was positive that he also looked like one. How long had it been since he'd last slept? He couldn't remember. He pressed enter and then suddenly... finished? He'd jumped in joy if he hadn't been so tired. After a few minutes of search he found his phone hidden beneath a big pile of paper. He dialled the number to the Boss as he looked at the clock – 5 am. The Boss answered the phone on the second ring.

"It's finished." Ralph said his voice hoarse from the lack of sleep.

"Good. Activate it immediately."

And without any kind of goodbye the Boss hung up. Ralph sighed and activated the virus. 5 minutes later he dragged himself to bed not bothering to even change his clothes. He just wanted sleep.

* * *

**So.. loved it/hated it? Please let me know. Btw this story is coming to an end (sobs) only one or two more chapter... I think XD**


	17. Chapter 17 Curtain Fall

**Okay. I give all you the right to throw half-rotten fruit and vegetables after me... I deserve it... Not only has it taken me forever to update. I also didn't keep my own promise about updated 2 weeks after my little announcement o.O I'm soooooooo sorry... As I wrote, I got a job and moved to another country. More specifically from Denmark to the UK. Not a mayor distance, but still.. The job's been straining and time consuming, but the biggest reason for not updating is probably the forever evil writer's block-syndrome. I actually had more or less the whole chapter written when I moved. It was just the bloody last bit that gave me so many problems. Besides I kinda lost faith in this story. I mean, I've read a lot of other people's stories and I just can't help compare them to mine and see how much better they are.. (yes, I know this is my first try and I am semi-content with it, but hey, I'm a perfectionist XD) **

**BUT NOW! I give to you: THE LAST CHAPTER OF A GIRL! **

* * *

**Curtain Fall**

Kaiba pressed a soft kiss on the sleeping girl's lips before he left the room.

In the kitchen he was joined by his brother and they ate breakfast together in silence before they both departed.

5 hours later Nikki woke. Disorientated, she looked around, "_hmm.. definitely Seto's room, but where is he?"_

She found the answer in the form of a note in the table beside the bed:

_Nikki, it's Monday. Seto_

Huffing, she crumbled the note and threw the blanket aside. "_Well, that explains" _She thought as she got up and headed for her own room in pursuit of some fresh clothes.

Showered and fully dressed Nikki stepped out of the bathroom 30 minutes later when the laptop on her desk reminded her of the rather important task that had been laid upon her. Thinking it was too early for another "attack" she decided to check anyway. "_Better safe, than sorry, right?"_

As she moved the cursor and the black screen disappeared she felt her eyes widen.

* * *

Kaiba tried to work concentrated but for some reason people had chosen today of all days to try and call him and when the phone rang for the 27th time in the last hour he was ready to throw it out the window.

Looking at the display though, he couldn't help being just a little surprised, "Dr. Jones" he stated coldly as he answered.

"Mr. Kaiba. I just called to let you know that I have finished my business issues and would like to attend to the patient this afternoon. I need to examine the fractured hand."

Kaiba growled silently, "Of course Doctor. You can come at 3 o'clock." He hung up without giving Dr. Jones anytime to object to the time.

10 seconds later the phone rang again.

"WHAT?" Kaiba yelled into the mouth piece, his patience finally snapping.

For a moment the person on the other end was silent, then: "Eh Seto? It's me..."

Kaiba's anger deflated almost immediately, "Nikki... what is it?" He asked, this time considerably softer.

"It's the hacker... He's at it again."

"WHAT?" Kaiba repeated disbelievingly. It seemed he'd underestimated them – whoever "they" were.

"According to the computer it started a little after 5 am this morning" Nikki said as she checked the status on the screen, "If everything works according to plan we'll have a location in about... 2 hours."

When she finished there was silence on the other line for a few seconds.

"Okay. I will be back about 2:30. Try to find as much as possible on whoever the bastard is."

"Right..." Nikki started before she was interrupted.

"And Dr. Jones will be there at 3 to check on your hand."

The acid on his voice didn't go unnoticed by Nikki, but she wisely chose to ignore it.

"Okay..." Pause, "Bye then"

"Goodbye"

* * *

Ralph slept peacefully in his bed oblivious to the little window with a warning flashing on his computer.

* * *

Nikki spent almost the entire two hours walking back and forth to her room to check on the computer. Every time she convinced herself that the process WOULD last two hours she found herself trailing back to the room – just in case.

But finally the two hours were up and with a small blipping noise a window popped up onto the screen: "Source Located".

Feeling very excited, Nikki pressed enter and a map of Domino appeared with a red dot: An apartment building in the more dubious part of the city. Within 2 second Nikki also had a name: Ralph Alfer.

"_Bingo!_" Nikki cheered inside her head as she ran the name through every available database (and also some not available). A 3-year-old police report showed up; something about hacking into bank accounts and stealing small amounts of money when he was 19.

Scrolling down Nikki frowned; apparently this Ralph-guy never did any time in jail didn't even get a fine. There was no explanation for that other than 3 words: Released on demand. Whatever that's supposed to mean. Getting frustrated Nikki opened a folder with photos.

Reaching to her left Nikki grabbed the phone and dialled the number to Kaiba's office. She was met with the ever-annoying busy-line-signal.

She studied the pictures of the pale red-haired and green-eyed hacker for a few minutes before continuing her search. He couldn't be the brain behind this, he just looked too much like a "nice guy" to pull something like this off where people actually got hurt... and killed.

Besides, he seemed to have been on the right track. She'd just found a local newspaper article about him in connection with a small conference he and a fellow computer enthusiast had held.

Looking closer on the picture that followed the article she found herself staring at a man in the background – he looked oddly familiar but Nikki had no idea from where. One thing, though, was for sure; he didn't look the slightest interested in computers.

Trying to ignore the strange feeling in her gut she tried to figure out why Ralph Alfer didn't get any kind of sentence. Sure, the amounts he'd been stealing were small and he'd only stolen from people who could afford it, and apparently he did it because he didn't have any money himself, but even so this still called for some kind of punishment.

Looking at the corner of the screen Nikki's fingers sped up. There was only 20 minutes before Kaiba returned and she'd like to have a little more information than a picture and a name.

Nikki sat back and thought for a moment. She needed a different approach since the straight forward one didn't give any convincing results. Smiling she began again. It didn't take her long to find out which phone company Ralph used and even less to find his phone records for the last month. A certain number continued to appear on the and Nikki held her breath when she saw the last call on the list – Ralph had made a call to the same number at 5 o'clock this morning, the conversation lasting no longer than 20 seconds.

The number belonged to a certain R. J. Shay, some kind of business man.

A short glance to her right told her that Kaiba was late. It was already 14:45.

"_Dammit! I need something more. A picture! Anything?"_ She thought exasperated.

Giving the computer a doubtful stare, Nikki hesitated, "Well, can't hurt..."

Quickly she opened google, "this is ridiculous."

Typing the name and pressing enter Nikki felt her jaw drop. She'd figured this R. J. Shay was some "ordinary" business man, but judging by all the hits that clearly wasn't the case.

"_Weird" _Nikki thought as she began examining the results. This man was never the front leader of any project – his name was always just a side note. Normally, one would assume that that meant he was just a stupid run-along but something about this man didn't feel right.

"Picture, picture, picture ~Where are you~" Nikki mumbled as she clicked back and forth from one page to another.

Kaiba cursed loudly as he was forced to stop at the third traffic light so far. He only had about 10 minutes before Dr. Jones would arrive.

As Nikki reached page 14 she was ready to give up when she suddenly recognized the article about Ralph Alfer. Opening it and this time reading it more carefully she face-palmed; there was no text directly below the picture other than Ralph and his buddy's name, but in the end of the article it said: "Also present at the conference sponsor R. J. Shay, see picture."

"_Whatever happened to proper article layout" _Nikki grumbled as she quickly printed the page along with all the other she found relevant.

So... R. J. Shay was this weird familiar looking guy? He looked sneaky.

* * *

Kaiba's car came to a screeching halt at the entrance to his driveway. Dr. Jones looked at him from the opposite car. Gritting his teeth Kaiba gestured him to go first. The doctor nodded in acknowledgement before he drove in. Kaiba followed directly behind.

They both parked by the front door, Kaiba determined not to let this man out of his sight.

"Good afternoon Mr. Kaiba" Dr. Jones greeted as they both stepped out of their cars. Kaiba only nodded in reply.

Entering his mansion he could feel Jones' presence behind him though the doctor hardly made any sound.

"How has the patient been?" Dr. Jones asked politely, "Her ribs should be fully healed by now."

"They are." Kaiba cut him off.

* * *

"3 O'clock" Nikki muttered, "He is late... prick.."

Before she had time to mentally scold him more severely, someone knocked on her door and Kaiba entered followed by another man, presumably Dr. Jones. As the doctor stepped out of Kaiba's shadow Nikki's blood froze. No wonder this R. J. Shay looked so familiar.

"What to do? What to do?" Nikki thought frantically. Trying to stay calm she quickly stood up with a big fake smile plastered on her face... and ran to Kaiba, jumping him in a big hug. With her legs wrapped around his waist she gave him a small peck on the cheek ignoring his baffled face. Putting her head on his shoulder opposite the doctor she whispered in his ear; "It's him..."

Feeling his whole body tense, Nikki knew that he'd understood the meaning of her words. Slowly letting herself slide down the CEO she looked at Jones, "Nice to meet you Dr. Jones" She greeted, her voice only wavering a little.

"Nice to meet you too, young lady. If you would please let me examine your hand I will be gone in a few minutes."

Slowly Nikki stretched her left hand towards him. He reached out and took a firm hold on it before pulling roughly, spinning her around so that her back was pressed against his chest, her hand trapped between their bodies in a painful angle. Suddenly a gun had appeared in his free hand its muzzle pressed firmly against Nikki's temple.

"I had really hoped it would not have had to come to this Mr. Kaiba" Jones said in an emotionless voice, giving an apologetic smile, "But giving the circumstances..." He gestured towards the computer screen where the article about Ralph Alfer was still showing.

"_Fuck!"_

* * *

At the same time, on his way home from school, Mokuba suddenly heard 4 small blips. Without hesitation he pulled his card locket with the picture of his brother out from under his sweater. Frowning, he swallowed hard when he saw the flashing red light in the upper right corner.

Seto had activated the "panic"-button in his locket which meant he probably was in serious trouble... and probably wanted Mokuba to stay as far away as possible. Feeling a sudden stubbornness he tugged the locket back under his clothes and opened the shield between him and the driver.

"Drop me off at the corner and drive away. Wait half an hour and then call the police."

If the chauffeur was puzzled by his young master's request he didn't show it, "Yes sir".

* * *

"You have been quite an annoyance young lady" Dr. Jones said, returning his attention to Nikki, "First Mr. Sanders and now Mr. Alfer." He sized her up from the corner of his eye, "hmm it is surprising how much damage a small and insignificant girl like you can do."

He suddenly applied more pressure to her temple as a warning to Kaiba who'd just taken a step forward seething with anger.

"Though, I must say you make an excellent bargaining tool. Isn't that right Saul?"

Kaiba saw Nikki's eyes widen and whirled around just to stare down the barrel of a huge gun in the hands of a dark-haired man with a menacing smile.

"Mr. Kaiba you really have to do something about your security."

* * *

Mokuba snuck up the driveway and entered the garage. Continuing to the kitchen he felt his heartbeat increase rapidly. He had recognized the car in the front of the house. What the hell was Dr. Jones doing here?

Once in the living room he heard voices from above. Glancing around he started to see the stupidity in his plan. What the hell was he supposed to d – His trail of thoughts was interrupted when he spotted the item on the table, "_This just might work"_ he thought as he grabbed the object with sweaty palms and continued his way upstairs.

* * *

"At this point it seems to be unnecessary to say don't move. So please be quite and let me think." Dr. Jones let out a sigh and almost sounded annoyed when he continued.

"You really are a troublesome little girl. If it were not for you I would be rich and retired, and your apparently very dear Mr. Kaiba would be on the streets. He has been such a nuisance – always impolite and complaining."

Suddenly he gave Nikki's hand one last squeeze and roughly pushed her into the arms of Kaiba. Letting the gun disappear again he straightened his clothes where Nikki's body had crumbled it, "Well I will leave you with Saul. I really dislike weapons."

He turned around and began leaving the room, Saul stepping aside to let him exit.

"Do as you wish" Dr. Jones told Saul before continuing, "And don't forget the younger one." And then he was gone.

* * *

Mokuba barely managed to jump into the nearest room when he heard someone approach him. Peeking out, he saw the back of Dr. Jones as he descended the stairs.

* * *

The room was completely silent except from Nikki's breath coming out in small gasps. A shudder went through her as Saul's smile widened. Kaiba gave her shoulders a small squeeze as if trying to reassure her. Needless to say it didn't help, but she clenched her jaw shut and tried not to show any kind of fear.

His brain worked in overdrive trying to find some way out of this, but... nothing. At least his brother wasn't here he thought dryly as a sneaking fear began to crawl through him.

"Well well" Saul's voice suddenly cut through the air and Nikki almost jumped. His voice was nothing like she'd imagined it. Instead of a hard gruff evil movie-henchman tone it was deep and soft like velvet. It made him even scarier.

"So now it's just you and me" He looked at them calculating for a short moment, "No, this simply won't do. Too cozy... too... Romeo and Juliet." He wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Moneybag, let go of your girlfriend and step 5 steps back. In a straight line."

Kaiba didn't move, instead he just stared the man directly in the eyes.

Saul raised an eyebrow at this obvious act of defiance. Normally people NEVER hesitated to do what he said. Especially not when he had a gun. "Listen, either you back away now or I will shoot her a couple of times. Nowhere lethal yet, but trust me – she won't look as pretty after a few hits point blanc with this baby." He patted the gun affectionately with a sadistic smile on his face. Kaiba carefully took 5 steps back.

"Much better" Saul grinned as he stalked closer to Nikki until he was less than a foot away. Kaiba grit his teeth.

Letting his gun caress Nikki's cheek, he gave her an onceover, "Hmm... Not bad.. I can see why Sanders liked you." Nikki immediately froze by the mentioning of that man, "I killed him, by the way..." He continued casually, "Couldn't have him running around since he seemed to be the real source of all our troubles, isn't that so?" Saul asked before giving Nikki's cheek on last pat with the gun before backing away from her towards the door.

He smiled cruelly, "Now, who wanna go first?"

Mokuba had to stifle a gasp as he peeked through the slightly ajar door. Some stranger was about to kill his brother and Nikki. Quickly he threw the object in his left hand before fear could take over and stop him.

Saul had just raised his gun towards Nikki having decided to make Kaiba watch as he slowly would tear her apart with some well-placed shot when a round disc-like thing rolled into the middle of the room.

Before he was able to react the thing started flashing with small lights and suddenly a big figure began materializing from the middle. Saul threw in a sharp breath as a vicious looking beast stood before him. It looked like a mixture of wolf and a bear – red eyes glowing with bloodlust.

He fired the shotgun with an ear deafening bang, but the bullet just went straight through the monster and buried itself in the wall. Beginning to panic Saul continued his assault until the chamber was empty.

As soon as he heard the first "click" Kaiba jumped and tackled Saul to the ground.

A wrestling match began between the two men with Kaiba on top - both fighting for the gun, desperately trying to wrench it from the other.

Looking around frantically Nikki's eyes searched for something she could use to help Kaiba with. Suddenly the two fighters flipped around so that Saul was on top. "I'd really have liked you to watch as I killed her first" he spat, teeth flashing in a sickly smile, "Now I'll just have to settle with the fact that you'll die knowing how much I'll enjoy playing with her!"

Pressing the weapon against Kaiba's throat he leaned down and whispered something in his ear.

Kaiba's eyes widened and the blood drained from his face. His frantic struggle grew even more desperate as he started to suffocate from the pressure of the gun. Suddenly Saul stiffened and his grip around the weapon loosened.

Nikki slammed the laptop in his head again with all the force she could muster.

Using all his strength Kaiba pushed the man off him onto the floor where he ended on his back.

A sickening crack was heard as the laptop connected with his nose.

Tears streamed down Nikki's cheeks as she continued to hammer her now bloodied "weapon" into his face.

Quickly Kaiba scrambled to his feet in time to stop her before she ended up killing the man. Not that he minded, but the police could be quite tiresome.

Gripping her arms he firmly twisted the laptop from her bloody hands and let it fall to the floor. Sobbing hard now Nikki crumbled in his embrace and carefully he led her towards the bed. Still with his arms around her he turned his attention to the door, "Mokuba it's over... You can come in now."

Not before the last word had escaped his lips, Mokuba had entered the room and flung himself at the couple.

"The police should be here any minute" he croaked.

"You did great... Stay with Nikki while I secure that guy."

* * *

1 week later

Kaiba was drowning in paperwork, idiots and imbecile employees when Chief constable Robert Haste called. It had been a week since the "incident" as Kaiba liked to refer to it in his head. Everything had gone fast once the police showed up. The guy on the floor was still unconscious and a lot of nosy cops started to ask a lot of nosy questions. Luckily the press didn't catch on to the story.. There was only one loose end. A very big loose end: There was no sign of the so-called Dr. Jones anywhere.

Returning hiss attention to the police officer in the phone Kaiba hoped for his sake that he had some good news.

* * *

Mokuba had just arrived home from school and was sitting in the kitchen with Nikki eating some pre-dinner sandwiches when his brother called him. Putting him on loudspeaker Mokuba placed the phone between them.

"Heya big bro!" He greeted cheerfully.

"_Hello Mokuba... Is Nikki there?"_

"Hi Seto..." Nikki answered for him.

"_Good.. Robert Haste just called." _

Mokuba and Nikki looked at each other and both scooted a bit closer to the phone.

"_They have arrested the guy that hacked my system. Apparently he owed Dr. Jones for helping him avoid going to prison and once he was in he couldn't get out. The other guy has finally woken up from the coma he was in and is already in prison for murder and arson. They found is DNA in the apartment where Mr. Sanders lived. Not to mention our testimonies." _He paused.

"What about Dr. Jones?" Mokuba asked impatiently.

They could practically hear Kaibe grind his teeth on the other end.

"_Due to the incompetence of our so-called police force, Dr. Jones has left the country. Two days ago he entered Colombia where he apparently is friend with a lot of powerful people and has a gigantic villa. But don't worry I will take care of it." _And with these words he hung up.

Nikki and Mokuba looked from the phone to each other and back to the phone.

"What did he mean by "I will take care of it"?" Nikki asked with growing confusion.

"Trust me... We don't wanna know" Mokuba replied shaking his head.

* * *

Back in his office Kaiba opened the folder on his computer marked Gozaburo Kaiba. Quickly skimming through a long list of phone numbers he found was he was looking for. Without looking away from the screen he dialled the number.

The phone only rang once before a digitally distorted voice answered.

"_Yes?"_

"Hello. You worked for my stepfather Gozaburo Kaiba." It was a statement and not a question.

"_Ah. Mr. Kaiba. To what do I owe the pleasure?"_

"I trust you are still in business?"

"_For a Kaiba. Always."_

"Good. I have a job for you."

* * *

3 days later a maid was met by a horrible sight, when she opened the door to her employer's office. There on the floor, gagged and hands tied behind his back lay Mr. Shay. Killed by a bullet to the head.

* * *

***Sniff* I'm no good at goodbyes.. I just want to thank all of you readers/reviewers/alerters/favouriters/marshmallows who have followed and supported me through-out this story even though I've taken an awfull long time to finish this. Hope I didn't disappoint you with this chapter. I know only too well how a crappy ending can ruin a good story ;) **

**Please review and let me know what you think. Or if you want to throw half-rotten fruit slash vegetables at me.**

**Goodbye and thanks for reading**

**- regsd**


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